Panama is paying a price for its involvement in the great superpower competition between China's government and the Trump administration. In January, under heavy pressure from Washington, Panama's supreme court handed President Trump a victory for his security ambitions in Latin America and dented China's influence in the region when it ousted Hong Kong's CK Hutchison from two ports the company operated at either end of the country's Panama Canal.

Beijing is pressuring the country after its ousting of a Hong Kong firm from two Panama Canal ports. Now China's government is pressuring Panama with measures that have disrupted its vital shipping industry, thwarting its ambitions to become a global logistics hub at a time of increasing geostrategic importance for the canal after Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. The diplomatic fallout is proving expensive.