Trump's 'new world order' push turns toward East Asia | Opinion

May 7 (UPI) -- Looking back, President Trump’s desire for the Panama Canal -- declared from the very outset of his second term -- was never a simple ambition. It was the opening move in a carefully calculated blueprint for reordering the world.

As the Iran war’s prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz drives a procession of oil tankers toward Panama, that blueprint is coming into focus.

Hormuz closes; Panama opens. The effect is almost hydraulic. Did Trump calculate this in advance? Surging vessel traffic and a seemingly limitless climb in transit fees would appear to answer that question.

CNBC, citing maritime data firm Kepler, reported that U.S. crude exports reached 5.2 million barrels per day last month -- 30% above the pre-war figure of 3.9 million. The principal beneficiary is the Port of Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico coast of southern Texas, from which oil-laden tankers transit the canal bound for Japan, South Korea, and other Asian markets.

The surge has intensified bottlenecks. The Panama Canal cannot accommodate Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) displacing more than 200,000 tons -- those ships are now rerouted around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, a journey far longer than transit through the canal.

To fill the supply gap until those shipments arrive, smaller vessels of 50,000 to 80,000 tons are making repeated shuttle runs through the canal, compounding the pressure on an already strained waterway. Average waiting times now exceed four days, and priority passage prices have reached record highs.

Transit fees confirm the picture. Daily auction prices have surged from roughly $135,000 before the war to approximately $385,000 -- nearly triple. Some Neopanamax-class vessels have bid as high as $4 million for priority slots; crude oil operators are paying premiums exceeding $3 million, more than triple pre-war rates; expedited passage fees of over $1 million are common, and bid volumes have increased fivefold.

LPG carriers and petrochemical tankers are reportedly paying more still. The Iran war, it would appear, has elevated the Panama Canal into an indispensable artery standing in for the Strait of Hormuz.

This did not happen by accident. Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that port operating rights held by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison were unconstitutional, transferring them to a U.S.-led consortium including BlackRock and removing Chinese influence from the canal’s operational infrastructure.

Trump had pressed the case since day one. In his inaugural address he stated directly: “China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

The objectives were interlocking: neutralizing a node in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, addressing U.S. security concerns, and reasserting influence over a waterway handling roughly 5% of global cargo traffic.

Panama’s capitulation came roughly 20 days after the United States apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Before the world had grasped the full scope of Trump’s design, Washington had neutralized Chinese influence in both countries in quick succession. Iran followed.

The objective, in broad terms, appears to be reducing Chinese sway across the Middle East and severing the oil supply routes connecting the region to China. As the Iran war continues, the restructuring is already expanding its reach toward NATO, where left-leaning governments in Germany, France and Britain find themselves in sharp tension with Trump over his confrontation with the Islamic world.

The Panama Canal, opened in 1914 under American construction and management, was transferred to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under conditions including a permanent neutrality guarantee. Trump has described the handover as a costly mistake -- one that, in his telling, followed 38,000 lives lost across decades of French and American construction efforts. In his view, China wasted no time filling the vacuum left by American departure.

From 2017, when Panama severed ties with Taiwan and recognized Beijing, China made the country a Latin American anchor for its Belt and Road Initiative. Estimated Chinese investment across the region has reached $300 billion, funding subways, bridges, dams, power plants and stadiums.

Xi Jinping personally attended the opening of COSCO’s $3.5 billion Chancay deep-sea mega-port in Peru. Through CK Hutchison, China secured operating rights to both the Balboa port on the Pacific side and the Cristobal port on the Atlantic side -- giving Beijing the potential, in a crisis, to obstruct U.S. warships or strategic cargo transiting the canal.

It was a malignant presence within America’s hemispheric sphere of influence, and the reason Trump insisted from his earliest days back in office that the United States had never given the canal to China.

Where does the “new world order” trigger, first pulled at the Panama Canal, point next? If this momentum continues unabated, East Asia may be the remaining destination -- and East Asia is where South Korea and Japan reside. This stage may prove the most consequential yet, precisely because it sits at China’s doorstep.

The question of U.S. troops stationed in both countries is therefore likely to become a matter of acute concern. Washington has already sent a signal in Germany. The suggestion of reducing American forces there is not a distant fire for Seoul and Tokyo -- it is a wind-driven blaze that could reach them at any moment. Both countries have stood apart from Trump’s Iran campaign, much as Germany has. The parallel is difficult to dismiss.

South Korea’s situation carries an additional and particularly sensitive dimension: North Korea, a state that claims intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the continental United States. Washington’s response to that threat bears watching with the utmost care. Venezuela and Iran may yet prove to be the models.

The trigger of global restructuring, first pulled at the Panama Canal, is turning toward East Asia -- and the states in its path will be judged, in the end, by the clarity of their own purpose.

Nohsok Choi is the former chief editor of the Kyunghyang Shinmun and former Paris correspondent. He currently serves as president of the Kyunghyang Shinmun Alumni Association, President of the Korean Media & Culture Forum, and CEO of the YouTube channel One World TV. The Views expressed in this commentary are his own.

Copyright 2026 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 9:00 AM.