The Chinese government is increasing its foothold in Latin America through various investments, including deep-water ports, energy, and mining resources, among other key areas, Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council said in a February report.
Peru’s Chancay Multipurpose Port Terminal, scheduled to be inaugurated on November 2024, is 60 percent owned by Chinese state-owned company COSCO. (Photo: Ministry of Transport and Communications of Peru)
“China is driving a strategic agenda guided by its economic, geopolitical, and energy interests,” Sergio Cesarin, coordinator of the Center for Asia-Pacific and India Studies at Argentina’s Tres de Febrero University, told Diálogo on March 11.
“China’s advances in Latin America are in critical areas such as strategic infrastructure, investments in sensitive technologies, logistical points, and in the military and defense field.”
Clementine Starling, director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense Program, said that Chinese companies abroad are heavily subsidized by the Beijing government. “This allows those companies to offer lower prices than their competitors, which is an important part of the problem,” she said.
China’s negative impact on democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean is also highlighted in a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“The study contemplates 13 cases in countries of the region, where the experts in charge found China as the main or the second economic-commercial partner,” Infobae reported.
“This is only the beginning and a façade, as over time nations become dependent on the Asian country, which concentrates its power on isolating states from the international sphere and increasing its dominance over them.”
“The links expand through a series of mechanisms that facilitate the propagation of the authoritarianism model, among which stand out its influence in the media, education, security, and diplomacy,” Infobae added.
Chinese companies invest, for example, in the construction of highways, creating a dependency. If the state cannot pay its debts, China demands strategic natural resources, such as mineral areas, oil fields, or the exploitation of a port region, Cesarin said.
“The strategy that China has been promoting for years is to control the world’s ports, railroads, airports, dams, minerals, and telecommunications, among other strategic sectors, Cesarin said. “The products it is also interested in are soybeans from Argentina, copper from Chile and Peru, oil from Venezuela, and fish resources from the South Atlantic and Pacific.”
“In addition, it seeks to increase its space capability and already has a network of antennas strategically placed in Latin America, supposedly to collaborate in satellite navigation. But they are of dual use, as they can serve for missile operations, space station control, and strategic communications tracking,” Cesarin added.
Among the concerns is the Espacio Lejano Station, with its 35-meter diameter antenna in Argentina’s Patagonia region, managed by China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General, which reports to the People’s Liberation Army.
China has also been seeking to strengthen its foothold in Antarctica, inaugurating its fifth base, the Qinling Station, on February 7. “They are interested in building a port in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. China’s gaze toward the South Atlantic, which they call the blue ocean, is aimed at fisheries planning, Antarctica, and bioceanic corridors,” Cesarin said.
“By nature, China is a complicated, difficult partner; it generally seeks the best results for its country and not for the places where it invests,” Evan Ellis, professor of Latin America Research at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, told Argentine daily Perfíl.
Another major area of interest for China is lithium, increasing investments in South America to acquire this metal for its application in the electronics and automotive industries, Cesarin said.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Bolivia has the largest lithium reserves worldwide, with some 21 million tons; followed by Argentina, with 19.3 million; and Chile, with 9.6 million.
“We must be very careful, vigilant, and maintain a publicly open discourse about the risks from China. Among those threats are digital penetration and the weakness of [some] countries, to make sovereign decisions in their own interests, based on uncommitted leaders,” Ellis said.
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