By “squeezing” China out of Latin America, the Trump administration was “trying hard to gain favourable chips” for the US leader’s trip to the country this year, he argued in an article published on the Shanghai-based news portal Guancha.cn.

Trump has repeatedly said the United States must gain control of the waterway, claiming it is “operated by China”.

His administration’s recent national security strategy also set out the White House’s wish to keep “adversaries” away from key strategic territories such as the canal and Greenland.