The Chinese Communist Party is gaining influence
In Latin America
It’s taking resources
And propping up authoritarians
In America’s backyard
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Shelley Zhang, filling in for Chris Chappell, who is building his own sphere of
influence in Latin America.
For years, foreign policy experts claimed that unlike Chris, the Chinese Communist Party
had no interest in Latin America.
The conventional wisdom was that the Chinese regime didn’t want to be a global hegemon.
It just wanted its own little sphere of influence.
Over Taiwan.
And the South China Sea.
Ok, and all of Southeast Asia.
And Australia.
And New Zealand.
And the South Pacific.
And I mean Antarctica is just sitting there practically empty.
And no one is really doing anything with Africa right now, right?
Think of all the resources!
So once again, conventional wisdom was totally wrong about China.
And over the last 20 years, the Chinese Communist Party has gained a lot of influence in Latin
America, too.
And Latin America is still looking East with open arms.
So how did China become so influential?
The same playbook it’s used around the world.
First it gets its foot in the door with trade.
“China has become the top trading partner for many countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean and is second-biggest, behind the US, for the region as a whole.”
Latin America’s trade with China went from $18 billion in 2002 to $450 billion in 2021.
That’s huge.
What kind of trade?
Latin America exports raw materials like soybeans, copper, and oil to China.
While China sends finished manufactured goods to Latin America, and, stop me if you’ve
heard this before, often undercutting local manufacturers with cheaper prices.
For example, in Mexico, this has destroyed local shoe, textile, and toy industries.
Cheap Chinese imports are basically keeping Latin America from building wealth through
manufacturing.
But while trade opens the door to Chinese influence, what really cements it is the Chinese
Communist Party’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Earlier this year, Argentina joined the Belt and Road.
Which means that now, 21 out of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are in
it.
On the surface, that means a lot of infrastructure investment, which is what these Latin American
countries want.
Building roads, ports, mines, rail, 5G— things that these countries can’t afford
on their own.
But there’s a big catch.
I’ll tell you more after the break.
Welcome back.
China’s expanding its influence in Latin America.
It’s investing in infrastructure projects like a mega-port in Peru.
But China’s infrastructure investments also pave the way for a huge amount of resource
extraction.
I mentioned things like copper and oil earlier.
Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile alone also have half the world’s lithium, a key component
for batteries.
And China has made billions of dollars of investments in Latin American lithium.
And it’s not just lithium.
Not even Latin American seafood is safe.
But China’s resource extraction is bringing a lot of problems with it.
Chinese companies have a devastating environmental impact in Latin America.
They don’t care about following environmental and labor regulations, and they definitely
don’t care about human rights.
Chinese companies have gotten in trouble for “repressing miners in Peru, forcibly displacing
indigenous families in Ecuador, and polluting groundwater, rivers, and glaciers in Argentina,
Bolivia and Chile.”
And locals aren’t too happy about what these companies are doing.
Like when Peruvians protested over a Chinese copper mine.
Still, this is all incredibly lucrative for the Chinese Communist Party.
But it’s not just about economic gain.
It’s also about political influence, too.
Specifically about Taiwan.
China dangles economic promises in return for cutting diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and
it’s working wonders for Beijing.
Last year, Nicaragua cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, after years of being wooed by China.
Only 14 countries now recognize Taiwan.
Eight of them are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
So it makes sense that part of China’s political focus on Latin America is about shutting Taiwan
out from the international community.
The other part is about challenging the US.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
China is increasing cooperation with Latin America.
And it’s offering more than just trade.
It offers security agreements, too.
And gifts like anti-riot equipment and police vehicles.
But the best gift of all is surveillance technology.
Which is easily abused.
For example, Ecuador’s cutting-edge surveillance system was completely designed and built by
Chinese companies, including Huawei.
And the surveillance footage didn’t just go to the police.
Under Ecuador’s previous leader, it also went to a domestic intelligence agency that
persecuted his political opponents.
That’s just one way China is promoting authoritarianism through technology.
The Chinese Communist Party also supports regimes like Cuba and Venezuela with digital
authoritarianism.
Like by helping them censor the internet.
Chinese company ZTE also helped Venezuela create a digital ID card that can be used
for social control.
China’s support for countries like Cuba and Venezuela also challenges the US.
And the US government sees China’s increasing influence in Latin America as a security threat.
According to US Admiral Craig Faller , former head of US Southern Command, China is seeking
economic dominance over Latin America.
And he says “[China] is also seeking to establish global logistics and basing infrastructure
in our hemisphere in order to project and sustain military power at greater distances"
They’re not quite there yet.
There’s no permanent Chinese military base in Latin America.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not looking for one.
So, what do you think of China’s growing influence in Latin America?
Leave your comments below.
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We rely on your support to help us keep making episodes like this.
Once again, I’m Shelley Zhang.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.