Insiders say Chinese leadership had hoped to leverage the port issue in its talks with the Trump administration, only to be caught off guard by the deal’s sudden progress.

Trump hailed the development as a strategic win over China — casting Panama as a key battleground in the broader US-China struggle for global influence.

In response, an op-ed published in the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao condemned the sale as a “betrayal of all Chinese people.”