On Wednesday, Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry and the U.S. ambassador to the country criticized China’s diplomats in Panama for asking the lawmakers to cancel their trip to Taiwan, with the ministry accusing the Chinese Embassy of “meddling” in internal Panamanian affairs. This followed comments from Panama President José Raúl Mulino a week earlier saying that the planned Taiwan trip did not have the approval of his administration and reminding the lawmakers that the executive branch was responsible for Panama’s foreign policy.
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island off its coast, as its territory and has staged threatening military drills in the surrounding waters in recent years.
