REUTERS, Beijing

China is opposed to US “smearing and sabotage” of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Panama through “pressure and coercion”, its foreign ministry said yesterday, after the South American nation decided to exit the programme.

At a regular press briefing, a ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said China deeply regretted Panama’s decision.

“We hope that Panama will make the right decision based on the overall situation of bilateral relations and the long-term interests of the two peoples, and eliminate external interference,” he added.

Panama has formally presented a document to exit the Belt and Road Initiative, President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday, after meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month, but denied that the United States had sought the move.

More than 20 Latin American nations are among the more than 150 countries that have participated in the Belt and Road Initiative, with results benefited their people, Lin said.

China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013.

In November 2017, Panama became the first Latin American country to officially join, five months after switching diplomatic ties to China from Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims as its territory.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Panama has ceded control of the canal to China, an accusation both nations deny.

The BRI is a massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bid to expand his country’s clout overseas.

Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.

Beijing yesterday insisted that it “supports Panama’s sovereignty over the canal”. “The US side’s attacks and interference in relevant cooperation once again expose its hegemonic nature,” the foreign ministry said.