Two years ago the U.S. gave away a unique piece of sovereign territory—the Panama Canal—claiming that it had no strategic value to America. That view has since been reinforced by Secretary of State Colin Powell: The gateway between the Americas has no strategic value!
There is a great difference between American thinking and Oriental thinking. The average American thinks short term—very short term. The Oriental mind is geared to moving slowly, with inscrutable visage, over an extended period of time toward fulfilling long-term goals. Short-term, myopic vision led the U.S. to give up Panama. The long-term view of the Chinese led them to secure the entry and exit ports at each end of the Panama Canal.
The Chinese have since announced their interest in a multi-billion dollar development project that will upgrade the Panama Canal’s facilities to accept the largest container vessels to be built in the foreseeable future.
The U.S. view that the canal has no strategic value fails to account for it being one of the largest gates through which the narcotics and guns that saturate America’s inner cities flow to their corrupt destinations. As the Mexican border is policed heavily, Panama is the preferred gate that is willingly swung open by its Chinese operators to give access to the free flow of illegal drugs and armaments north to the U.S. and northeast to Europe. Only one other corridor is available to the Colombian drug lords to peddle their perverse business: Venezuela.
For some time Mexican and Colombian drug lords have battled for supremacy in the U.S. market. The Colombian narco-czars want their product to have a secure route to the U.S. which bypasses Mexico. The only alternative to Panama to ease shipment of illegal drugs, neighboring Venezuela offers a gateway to North America via the Caribbean. Here China enters the scene again with its reported purchase of the highly strategic Bahaman port of Freeport.
The Chinese, who became suckers for the opium trade which built the British banking business in Hong Kong, have turned the tables and now play the Anglo-Americans for suckers at their own game. They control the prime sea gates which in turn control the supply of illegal drugs internationally, 75 percent of which is consumed in the U.S.
Having the above in mind, it is no small wonder that Chile, in possession of that prime southern gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Straits of Magellan, should be courted by China into becoming China’s gateway to trade with Latin America. Chile was the first Latin American country to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Chile is second only to Brazil in Latin American trade with China. China’s long-term strategy for the control of the flow of both legitimate and illegitimate cargo through the southern seas and oceans is steadily working to its long-term advantage.