President-elect Donald Trump yesterday sounded an alarm about a very serious threat to our national security and commercial interests arising from the current status of the strategic Panama Canal.

While Mr. Trump cited concerns about Panama’s exorbitant charges imposed on U.S. military and commercial shipping, he also directly addressed the question of who controls the

waterway we built.

And with good reason. In Panama, as in much of Latin America, the Chinese Communists have secured key real estate – usually under the pretense of business operations – that can be used to

project power. Their ports at both ends of the Panama Canal could easily deny our warships’ or others’ transit, or even shut it down.

It's high time this yawning problem – and the larger issue of hostile foreigners’ penetration of our hemisphere – be front and center in our national security planning and operations.

This is Frank Gaffney.