A quarter of a century after the United States handed control of the Panama Canal to its host country, President Donald Trump wants to take it back.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would consider using military force to wrest control of the canal from Panama, one of the United States' closest allies in Latin America, calling it "vital" to national security.

But he complained more about U.S. rival China, which he said was "operating" the vital waterway, a transit point for nearly 5 percent of global maritime trade.

"We didn't turn it over to China," Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday. "We gave it to Panama and we're going to take it back."

Panama strongly condemned Trump's comments, with President José Raul Mulino saying the canal "is and will remain Panama's."

Mulino also dismissed Trump's assertion that China controls the canal.

"No country in the world interferes with our government," he said in a Spanish-language statement on Monday.

China agreed with the Panamanian president, saying the canal is "not under the direct or indirect control of any country."

"China is not involved in the management and operation of the canal, and has never interfered in canal-related affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. "We have always respected Panama's sovereignty over the canal and recognized it as a permanently neutral international waterway."

The nearly 50-mile-long canal, through which nearly 15,000 ships pass each year, has its neutrality enshrined in the Panamanian Constitution and enforced by the Panama Canal Autonomous Agency authority.

“That’s why the Panama Canal has been so successful, and because of that neutrality, it remains the world’s main commercial artery,” said Beatriz García Nice, associate program associate on Latin America at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan research organization. One." in Washington.

The United States began building the canal in 1904, the year after Panama gained independence from Colombia with U.S. support. Completed in 1914, the project was an effort to shorten transit times for U.S. merchant and military vessels, which previously had to travel all the way south to get from one U.S. coast to another.

By the mid-20th century, control of the canal had become a source of tension between the United States and Panama, leading to anti-American riots in 1964 that resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers and more than 20 Panamanians.

The United States gave control of the canal to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty negotiated by President Jimmy Carter and approved by the Senate in 1978, which Trump called "a terrible mistake." The United States reserves the permanent right to defend the Canal against any threat to its neutrality.

Several international companies that currently manage ports along the canal, including Seattle-based SSA Marine, which operates a cargo terminal on the Atlantic side, won the rights in a bidding process that U.S. officials at the time described as fair and fair. non-discriminatory.

In 1997, Hutchison Ports, a private company based in Hong Kong that manages 53 ports around the world, acquired management rights for two ports - Port Balboa on the Pacific side and Port Cristobal on the Atlantic side.

The Trump administration believes China could use the ports to turn the Panama Canal into a "choke" against the United States

"If these companies control both ends of the canal during a conflict and the Chinese tell them, 'Close the canal and don't let the United States through there,' we're going to have a big, big problem," the secretary said. "This is a major economic issue and it's a major national security and defense issue," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during his Senate confirmation hearing last week.

Although ports are located at either end of the canal, they are not gateways to the waterway—ships do not have to pass through them to enter the canal. Instead, ports serve primarily as places for handling cargo.

"China would actually need to take war action to shut it down," said Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at London think tank Chatham House. "You can't ask port companies to shut down a canal."

Trump also claimed that the United States charged "exorbitant fees" for ships passing through the canal and said Panama had "violated" the treaty.

"American ships are grossly overcharged and not treated fairly in any way. That includes the U.S. Navy," he said in his inaugural address.

As water levels in the waterway, fed by a freshwater lake, drop due to a warming climate, the Panama Canal Authority has limited the number of ships that can pass through each day and raised fees for all ships, regardless of which country they belong to.

"The fees were raised across the board in a professional and transparent manner and that's all," Sabatini said. "It's just like any other toll booth, it's professionally and independently managed."

Sabatini and Nice said the growing accusations against Panama could damage U.S. relations with one of its closest allies in Latin America, where China has been making advances.

"This move further questions whether the United States is a reliable partner, especially in the face of the influence China already has in the region," Nice said.

As for Trump's threat to use force to retake the canal, Sabatini said such drastic action would require Senate approval.

"This is an international treaty, ratified by the United States Senate," he said. "This is not something that the executive branch can unilaterally decide to undo."

Still, the Panama Canal Authority conducted an audit of Hutchison Ports, which Nice said was an effort to appease Washington.

"They're trying not to confront one of your biggest allies and say, 'If this can help and de-escalate the situation in some way, then we'll do it,'" she said.

Hutchison Ports said it was cooperating fully with the audit and remained committed to "pursuing excellence and ethics in every one of our operations," Bloomberg News reported, citing a statement. The company did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.

Trump also greatly exaggerated the number of Americans killed during the construction of the canal, claiming 38,000 lives were lost. According to the Panama Canal Authority, about 5,600 of the 56,000 workers in the U.S. during the construction phase died from injury or illness, most of them from the Caribbean.

For Panamanians, the canal's independence is a matter of pride, as hundreds of Panamanians died during the 1989 U.S. invasion.

"The canal is no one's concession. It is the result of generations of struggle that reached its peak in 1999," President Mulino said. “In the 25 years since then, we have worked non-stop to responsibly manage and expand it to serve the world, including the United States, and its businesses.”