U.S. generals have warned about China’s aggressive expansion and influence campaign in South America and the Caribbean, with Beijing investing in infrastructure while also pushing authoritarian governance in the region.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “continues to expand its economic, diplomatic, technological, informational, and military influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The PRC has the capability and intent to eschew international norms, advance its brand of authoritarianism, and amass power and influence at the expense of these democracies,” General Laura J. Richardson, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said during a House Armed Service committee hearing on March 8, referring to the Chinese regime by its official name the People’s Republic of China.
The CCP has “expanded its ability to extract resources, establish ports, manipulate governments through predatory investment practices, and build potential dual use space facilities, the most space facilities in any combatant command region.”
Richardson pointed out that China has used the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to boost its influence in Latin America. The region is home to 8 percent of the global population, but it suffered 29 percent of the world’s COVID-19 deaths. She estimates that 170 million people in Latin America are in poverty, with the economies of various states in the region struggling.