In US, China’s engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been seen as a threat to Washington’s strategic position globally with recommendations of employing military, technological and economic might to force its neighbors into severing economic ties with Beijing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself recently travelled to several regional states to counter China’s influence and prevent them from building critical infrastructure in cohorts with Beijing.
But with China and LAC leaders at a forum in Beijing agreeing to bolster ties and support a “fair, transparent and rules-based multilateral trade system” and Brazilian’s President Lula da Silva urging China and his country to oppose “unilateralism, protectionism and bullying,” in a densely veiled swipe at America, the gathering sent a strong message about its reluctance to rupture relations with Beijing.
In defiance of Trump’s global trade war and crackdown on migration, the bloc has been promoting an inside reconciliation to deliver a collective response. In last month’s Celac (Community of Latin America and the Caribbean States) summit in Tegucigalpa, regional leaders called on the alliance to “reinvent itself” to face up to Washington’s renewed “imperialist domination” efforts, protect against unilateral actions and develop initiatives in trade, science and technology, rejecting “racism, human rights violations and the criminalization of the Latin American brothers.”
For a region that has been immersed in a low growth trap and where connectivity is crucial for a resilient economic future, the forum provided an opportunity to LAC to showcase its concerns on America’s protectionist policies and pursue its ambition of projecting itself a dynamic geopolitical and economic player through cooperation with China.
In recent years, China-Latin America relationship has strengthened as two-thirds of regional countries have joined Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Beijing has emerged as biggest trading partners of key regional nations including Brazil, Chile and Peru. Trump’s threats of taking over Panama Canal by force handed over him an ephemeral success as Panama withdrew from China’s foreign policy drive; Colombia's joining of the Chinese mammoth infrastructure blueprint tainted the US president’s’ neo-Monroe Doctrine of considering the Western Hemisphere as America’s exclusive sphere of influence.
Testifying before Senate Armed Services Committee, Commander US Southern Command Admiral Alvin Holsey said that China was “using the BRI to set the theater and expand its access to rare earth metals and control of ports, space facilities and telecommunications infrastructure for a potential dual civilian-military purpose.”
While much of interpretation is overblown with US coercive policies such as tariffs and aid cuts facilitating Beijing to outmaneuver Washington in a strategic competition, America's own approach is driven by a craving to seize Latin America’s rare earth metals. State Department’s 100-day fact sheet itself pursues to draw regional countries away from BRI and securing minerals for the US national defense and commercial applications. This strategic chicanery surrounding US practice approach is pushing regional countries toward China.
As Trump’s stopgap policy challenges America's geopolitical and economic dominance, the forum is turning into a symbol of cooperation and launchpad of introducing initiatives and formulating action plans to advance China’s vision of building a “community with a shared future” as highlighted by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to provide a 66 billion yuan credit line to support the region's development, extension of visa-free arrangement to five countries, import more products and channel further investments.
Since the turn of the century, the China-LAC relationship has grown at a fast clip, bringing a promising economic opportunity to the region. Nearly 200 BRI megaprojects worth more than $100 billion were estimated to have been implemented over the last decade; bilateral trade in 2024 leapt 6% to more than $518 billion from barely $14 billion in 2000. By 2023, China’s investments in the region had exceeded $600 billion.
One recent example of China-LAC cooperation is the development of Chancay Port in Peru. The project – set to become a new logistical order and strategic transshipment hub and accelerate trade across the Pacific for Peruvian Blueberries, Brazilian soy and Chilean copper – would rewire hemispherical trade, intensifying the China-US rivalry. Yet the Peruvian government is seemingly willing to take the risk even though it antagonizes Washington. If there were any, Trump’s tariffs and punitive measures have encouraged Lima and others into connecting with China-built port.
Chinese projects including upgradation of the Dominican Republic’s electric grid, deep-water port on Grand Bahama and “new infrastructure” such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, smart cities, and 5G technology across the region have rattled the US about growing China’s penetration and alleged cyber threats from Beijing; these fears aren’t holding regional leaders back from pursuing their economic and social development in partnership with China.
Studies show LAC’s embracement of China as a partner has benefited the region with advances in infrastructure development and trade and investment. Acknowledging the BRI has played an important role in Latin America, they predict that Beijing has signed almost 1,000 bilateral agreements with LAC countries to facilitate and promote trade, investment and cooperation across a wide array of sectors.
China’s expanding influence is sounding alarm in the US yet it cannot just shift the blame on Beijing as Washington for decades has put the region in a pigeonhole and forgotten it. Trump’s depreciatory comments, expansionist agenda and renaming of Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America would further complicate America’s ties with region and hasten its drive of seeking more autonomy in its foreign policy including through intensive engagement with Beijing.
While Trump administration’s belittling, threatening and domineering posture has gained some achievement; not all LAC countries will toe America’s line with most of them alongside China advocating for an inclusive economic globalization, multilateralism and multilateral trading system as well as opposing unilateralism. In this battle of narratives between China and US, latter's narrative seems to have dominated the former's.
*My article that first appeard in the "Express Tribune"
In defiance of Trump’s global trade war and crackdown on migration, the bloc has been promoting an inside reconciliation to deliver a collective response. In last month’s Celac (Community of Latin America and the Caribbean States) summit in Tegucigalpa, regional leaders called on the alliance to “reinvent itself” to face up to Washington’s renewed “imperialist domination” efforts, protect against unilateral actions and develop initiatives in trade, science and technology, rejecting “racism, human rights violations and the criminalization of the Latin American brothers.”
For a region that has been immersed in a low growth trap and where connectivity is crucial for a resilient economic future, the forum provided an opportunity to LAC to showcase its concerns on America’s protectionist policies and pursue its ambition of projecting itself a dynamic geopolitical and economic player through cooperation with China.
In recent years, China-Latin America relationship has strengthened as two-thirds of regional countries have joined Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Beijing has emerged as biggest trading partners of key regional nations including Brazil, Chile and Peru. Trump’s threats of taking over Panama Canal by force handed over him an ephemeral success as Panama withdrew from China’s foreign policy drive; Colombia's joining of the Chinese mammoth infrastructure blueprint tainted the US president’s’ neo-Monroe Doctrine of considering the Western Hemisphere as America’s exclusive sphere of influence.
Testifying before Senate Armed Services Committee, Commander US Southern Command Admiral Alvin Holsey said that China was “using the BRI to set the theater and expand its access to rare earth metals and control of ports, space facilities and telecommunications infrastructure for a potential dual civilian-military purpose.”
While much of interpretation is overblown with US coercive policies such as tariffs and aid cuts facilitating Beijing to outmaneuver Washington in a strategic competition, America's own approach is driven by a craving to seize Latin America’s rare earth metals. State Department’s 100-day fact sheet itself pursues to draw regional countries away from BRI and securing minerals for the US national defense and commercial applications. This strategic chicanery surrounding US practice approach is pushing regional countries toward China.
As Trump’s stopgap policy challenges America's geopolitical and economic dominance, the forum is turning into a symbol of cooperation and launchpad of introducing initiatives and formulating action plans to advance China’s vision of building a “community with a shared future” as highlighted by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s commitment to provide a 66 billion yuan credit line to support the region's development, extension of visa-free arrangement to five countries, import more products and channel further investments.
Since the turn of the century, the China-LAC relationship has grown at a fast clip, bringing a promising economic opportunity to the region. Nearly 200 BRI megaprojects worth more than $100 billion were estimated to have been implemented over the last decade; bilateral trade in 2024 leapt 6% to more than $518 billion from barely $14 billion in 2000. By 2023, China’s investments in the region had exceeded $600 billion.
One recent example of China-LAC cooperation is the development of Chancay Port in Peru. The project – set to become a new logistical order and strategic transshipment hub and accelerate trade across the Pacific for Peruvian Blueberries, Brazilian soy and Chilean copper – would rewire hemispherical trade, intensifying the China-US rivalry. Yet the Peruvian government is seemingly willing to take the risk even though it antagonizes Washington. If there were any, Trump’s tariffs and punitive measures have encouraged Lima and others into connecting with China-built port.
Chinese projects including upgradation of the Dominican Republic’s electric grid, deep-water port on Grand Bahama and “new infrastructure” such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, smart cities, and 5G technology across the region have rattled the US about growing China’s penetration and alleged cyber threats from Beijing; these fears aren’t holding regional leaders back from pursuing their economic and social development in partnership with China.
Studies show LAC’s embracement of China as a partner has benefited the region with advances in infrastructure development and trade and investment. Acknowledging the BRI has played an important role in Latin America, they predict that Beijing has signed almost 1,000 bilateral agreements with LAC countries to facilitate and promote trade, investment and cooperation across a wide array of sectors.
China’s expanding influence is sounding alarm in the US yet it cannot just shift the blame on Beijing as Washington for decades has put the region in a pigeonhole and forgotten it. Trump’s depreciatory comments, expansionist agenda and renaming of Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America would further complicate America’s ties with region and hasten its drive of seeking more autonomy in its foreign policy including through intensive engagement with Beijing.
While Trump administration’s belittling, threatening and domineering posture has gained some achievement; not all LAC countries will toe America’s line with most of them alongside China advocating for an inclusive economic globalization, multilateralism and multilateral trading system as well as opposing unilateralism. In this battle of narratives between China and US, latter's narrative seems to have dominated the former's.
*My article that first appeard in the "Express Tribune"