It was a Christmas message that no one saw coming.

这是一个谁也没料到的圣诞祝福。

On Dec. 25, President-elect Donald J. Trump went on his social media platform, Truth Social, to wish a “Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal.”

12月25日，候任总统特朗普在他的社交媒体平台Truth Social上祝愿“所有人圣诞快乐，包括中国的优秀士兵们，他们充满爱心但非法地运营着巴拿马运河”。

Mr. Trump’s claim is false. The Panama Canal is operated by an agency of the Panamanian government, not by Chinese soldiers. In a news conference, President José Raúl Mulino of Panama disputed Mr. Trump’s statements, saying that there were “no Chinese in the canal” beyond those in transiting ships or at the visitor center.

特朗普的说法并不对。巴拿马运河是由巴拿马政府的一个机构而非中国军人运营的。巴拿马总统何塞·劳尔·穆里诺在新闻发布会上反驳了特朗普的说法，称除了在过境船只上或游客中心的中国人之外，“没有中国人在运河”。

“There is absolutely no Chinese interference or participation in anything that has to do with the Panama Canal,” Mr. Mulino said.

“中国绝对没有干涉或参与任何与巴拿马运河有关的事务，”穆里诺说。

While Mr. Trump’s claim was inaccurate, the growing influence of Chinese companies and the Chinese government over shipping and global ports, including the Panama Canal, has become a concern for U.S. officials.

虽然特朗普的说法并不准确，但中国公司和中国政府对包括巴拿马运河在内的航运和全球港口的影响力日益增长，这已引起美国官员的担忧。

The Chinese government has invested heavily in building ports throughout the world. And given that China is the world’s biggest exporter, private Chinese companies now play a major role in shipping and port operations, giving them significant influence over the movement of global goods and strategic positions from which to monitor other countries’ activities.

中国政府投入巨资在世界各地建设港口。鉴于中国是世界上最大的出口国，中国的私营企业目前在航运和港口运营中扮演着重要角色，这使它们对全球货物的流动产生了重大影响，并占据能监控其他国家活动的战略位置。

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump-Vance transition team, said in a statement that “Chinese control of the Panama Canal absolutely poses a national security threat to the U.S.”

特朗普-万斯过渡团队发言人布莱恩·休斯在一份声明中表示：“中国对巴拿马运河的控制绝对对美国的国家安全构成威胁。”

He pointed to congressional testimony last year by Gen. Laura J. Richardson, the head of U.S. Southern Command, that Chinese infrastructure investments serve as “points of future multi-domain access” for the Chinese military.

他指出，美国南方司令部司令劳拉·理查德森将军去年在国会作证时称，中国的基础设施投资是中国军方“未来多领域准入点”。

The Panama Canal was built by the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, but handed back to the Panamanian government in 1999, under the terms of an agreement struck by President Jimmy Carter. That decision has long been a source of consternation for some Republicans including his successor, President Ronald Reagan.

巴拿马运河由美国在20世纪初修建，但根据吉米·卡特总统达成的协议条款，于1999年交还给巴拿马政府。这一决定长期以来一直令包括卡特总统的继任者罗纳德·里根总统在内的一些共和党人感到不安。

Much of the concern of U.S. officials in more recent times centers on two seaports at either end of the Panama Canal, a channel through which 40 percent of U.S. container traffic runs. Those seaports have been operated for decades by Hutchison Ports PPC, a division of CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company.

最近，美国官员关注的焦点主要集中在巴拿马运河两端的两个海港上，美国40%的集装箱运输都要通过巴拿马运河。几十年来，这两个海港一直由香港长江和记控股公司旗下的和记港口公司运营。

CK Hutchison is a publicly listed conglomerate whose largest owner is a family of Hong Kong billionaires, not the Chinese government. But Beijing has extended its national security laws to Hong Kong, and the Chinese government has recently shown willingness to weaponize supply chains (something that Beijing also accuses the United States of doing).

长江和记是一家公开上市的企业集团，其最大的所有者是香港的一个亿万富翁家族，而不是中国政府。但中国政府已将其国家安全法延伸至香港，而且中国政府最近也表现出将供应链武器化的意愿（中国政府也指责美国这样做）。

That has U.S. officials on both sides of the aisle increasingly worried that the Chinese government could exert influence over private companies to shut down commercial and military shipments in a time of war.

这让美国两党官员越来越担心，中国政府可能会对私营公司施加影响，在战时关闭商业和军事运输。

In a congressional hearing in May, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the Democratic ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, questioned an expert who was testifying before Congress about whether the Chinese government could exert control over Panamanian ports to delay U.S. shipments, for example, in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.

在去年5月的一次国会听证会上，众议院中国问题特别委员会民主党首席委员、伊利诺伊州众议员拉贾·克里希纳莫尔西向一位在国会作证的专家提问：中国政府是否可以控制巴拿马港口，以拖延美国的运输，比如在台湾问题发生冲突的情况下。

“I share your concern,” Daniel Runde, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, told him. Mr. Runde said that the government of Panama controlled the entire canal, but that in an ideal world, Hong Kong-controlled companies would not be managing the ports next to them.

“我和你一样担心，”华盛顿智库战略与国际研究中心高级副总裁丹尼尔·伦德对他说。伦德表示，巴拿马政府控制着整条运河，但如果旁边的港口不是由香港控制的公司来管理，则更为理想。

A recent report by Strategy Risks, an analytics firm, said that no direct links specific to Panama had been found between CK Hutchison and the Chinese Communist Party, but that the company’s involvement in managing the Panama Canal ports raised security concerns due to its parent company’s ties to China. As a Hong Kong company, CK Hutchison is subject to Chinese jurisdiction — including laws that can require companies to assist in intelligence gathering or military operations — and it has cooperated with various Chinese state-linked entities on business projects, the report said.

分析公司Strategy Risks最近的一份报告称，没有发现长江和记与中国共产党在巴拿马有任何直接联系，但由于其母公司与中国的关系，该公司参与巴拿马运河港口的管理引起了安全方面的担忧。报告称，作为一家香港公司，长江和记受中国司法管辖——包括可能要求公司协助情报搜集或军事行动的法律——而且它曾与多个与中国政府存在关联的实体在商业项目上合作。

Corporate records retrieved through Wirescreen, a data platform, show that, through a network of subsidiaries, CK Hutchison co-owns a real estate joint venture with Aviation Industry Corporation of China, one of China’s largest defense companies.

通过数据平台Wirescreen检索到的公司记录显示，长江和记通过一个子公司网络，与中国最大的国防公司之一中国航空工业集团共同拥有一家房地产合资企业。

CK Hutchison and Hutchison Ports did not respond to requests for comment.

长江和记及和记港口都没有回应置评请求。

The presence of Chinese companies near the port in Panama is hardly unique. CK Hutchison is one of the world’s largest port companies, operating 53 ports in 24 countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia.

中国公司在巴拿马港口附近的存在并不是独特情况。长江和记是全球最大的港口公司之一，在荷兰、英国、香港和澳大利亚等24个国家经营53个港口。

Michael R. Wessel, who was a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a government agency that examined the port security issue, said that influence over ports was important for a variety of reasons, including political and economic influence, and the potential for surveillance.

迈克尔·韦塞尔是美中经济与安全审查委员会的成员，这是一个负责审查港口安全问题的政府机构。他表示，出于各种原因，包括政治和经济影响以及监视的可能性，对港口的影响力是一个非常重要的问题。

美国约40%的集装箱运输通过巴拿马运河。

Ninety percent of U.S. military cargo travels by commercial ships, he said, giving port operators insight when the government steps up operations in certain places. Port ownership can also provide clues into how the U.S. government screens cargo for security risks, which could make it easier to evade these efforts, Mr. Wessel said.

他说，90%的美国军用货物都是通过商船运输的，这让港口运营商可以洞察到政府是否在某些地方加强行动。港口所有权还可以提供美国政府如何筛查货物安全风险的线索，可能会使规避这些努力变得更加容易，韦塞尔说。

“Being a port or terminal operator gives you the ability to access or have knowledge of what the U.S. government is looking for, which containers might be targeted for extra evaluation,” he said.

“作为港口或码头运营商，你有能力接触或了解美国政府正在寻找什么，哪些集装箱可能成为额外评估的目标，”他说。

In February, the Biden administration announced an effort to strengthen cybersecurity at U.S. ports and fund domestic manufacturing of cargo-moving port cranes, which are increasingly being produced by Chinese companies. And in July, lawmakers introduced legislation to require the Defense Department to monitor China’s influence over ports.

今年2月，拜登政府宣布将努力加强美国港口的网络安全，并为国内制造港口货物起重机提供资金，因为越来越多的起重机是由中国公司生产的。7月，立法者提出法案，要求国防部监控中国对港口的影响。

In an advisory last year, the U.S. government cautioned port operators that foreign-made port equipment and software could create vulnerabilities in transportation networks. The advisory highlighted the risks of Chinese security equipment used for explosion detection and facial recognition, and ship-to-shore cranes that can be controlled remotely.

在去年的一份咨询报告中，美国政府告诫港口运营商，外国制造的港口设备和软件可能会给运输网络带来漏洞。该警告强调了用于爆炸检测和面部识别的中国安全设备，以及可远程控制的船岸起重机的风险。

Panama’s increasing openness to China in recent years has helped to fuel concerns in the United States about Beijing’s influence. In 2017, Panama cut its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized Beijing as the government of China. The next year, Panama became the first Latin American country to sign on to China’s global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

近年来，巴拿马对中国日益开放，加剧了美国对北京影响力的担忧。2017年，巴拿马与台湾断交，转而承认北京。第二年，巴拿马成为第一个签署中国全球基础设施计划“一带一路”倡议的拉美国家。

But since then, there has been growing apprehension in Panama about accelerating flows of trade and investment from China, said Jason Marczak, a Latin America expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

华盛顿智库大西洋理事会的拉丁美洲问题专家杰森·马尔扎克表示，但从那时起，巴拿马国内对来自中国的贸易和投资加速流动的担忧与日俱增。

Panama has partnered with the United States to expand its chips industry. And since Mr. Mulino’s government came into office last year, Panama has been unequivocal in its desire to deepen ties with the United States and to more broadly align with U.S. foreign policy objectives, Mr. Marczak said.

巴拿马与美国合作扩大它的芯片产业。马尔扎克说，自穆利诺政府去年上台以来，巴拿马一直明确表示希望深化与美国的关系，并在更大范围内与美国的外交政策目标保持一致。

“An over-dependence on China is something that the Panamanians want to avoid,” he said.

“巴拿马人希望避免过度依赖中国，”他说。

Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said that China had long supported Panama’s sovereignty over the canal and recognizes it as a permanently neutral international waterway.

中国驻华盛顿大使馆发言人刘鹏宇表示，中国长期以来一直支持巴拿马对运河的主权，并认可运河是一条永久中立的国际航道。

A longstanding symbol of U.S. imperialism, the canal is still central to the U.S. economy.

作为美帝国主义的长期象征，巴拿马运河仍然对美国经济至关重要。

Mr. Trump has repeated other falsehoods about the canal, and threatened to retake it unless the United States is treated more “fairly.” He said that 38,000 Americans died building it; historians say it was hundreds of U.S. residents, and that the thousands of people who died were from Central America, the Caribbean or Colombia.

特朗普还重复了关于运河的其他不实之词，并威胁收回运河，除非美国得到更“公平”的对待。他说有3.8万美国人在修建运河时丧生；而历史学则家说实际只有数百名美国居民，成千上万的丧生者来自中美洲、加勒比海或哥伦比亚。

Even if the United States were to regain control of the canal — a difficult prospect because the treaties handing it over were ratified by the U.S. Senate — it would not change the fact that a Chinese-owned company controls the ports at either end.

即使美国重新获得运河的控制权——这是一个困难的前景，因为移交运河的条约已获得美国参议院的批准——也无法改变中国人拥有的公司控制运河两端港口的事实。

Mr. Trump also called the fees Panama charges to transit the canal “exorbitant.” In fact, those fees are lower than for similar shipping chokepoints, though they have increased because drought has lowered the water level in the canal and the number of ships that can pass through.

特朗普还称巴拿马收取的运河过境费“过高”。事实上，这些费用低于类似的航运咽喉要道，不过由于干旱导致运河水位下降，可以通过的船只数量减少，这些费用已随之增加。

Judah Levine, the head of research at Freightos, a logistics company, said that Panama charges container ships about $100,000 to $300,000 per transit — just a fraction of what the Suez Canal charges, even before the recent shipping disruptions in the Red Sea.

物流公司Freightos的研究主管朱达·莱文表示，巴拿马向集装箱船每次转运收取约10万至30万美元的费用，这只是苏伊士运河收费的一小部分，即使在最近红海航运中断之前也是如此。

“For container vessels, when those costs are spread across the thousands of containers being carried on each ship, the cost to importers/exporters is not terribly significant,” he said in a statement.

他在一份声明中说：“就集装箱船而言，如果将这些成本分摊到每艘船上运载的数千个集装箱中，进出口商的成本并不高。”

A Trump spokeswoman said this week that because the United States is the biggest user of the canal, the increase in fees hits its ships the most.

特朗普的一位发言人本周表示，由于美国是巴拿马运河的最大用户，费用的增加对美国船只最为不利。