A Chinese-built megaport in Peru could be used by the Chinese navy, a top U.S. general said, highlighting U.S. security risks from Belt and Road projects in Latin America.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to inaugurate the $1.3 billion Pacific coast port of Chancay when he visits Peru for a summit in mid-November, amid concerns growing concerns among U.S. security officials over the size, depth and strategic location of the facilities. Chinese warships.
China's Cosco Shipping, which built the port with a local junior partner, will be the sole operator when it opens after Peru dropped a lawsuit challenging its exclusive status.
It could be used as a dual-use facility — it's a deep-water port, said Gen. Laura Richardson, outgoing head of U.S. Southern Command, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean. [The navy] I could use it, absolutely…it's a model that we've seen play out elsewhere, not just in Latin America.
Twenty-two Latin American and Caribbean countries have signed Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's flagship project to build infrastructure overseas, as China expands its footprint in a region once considered the backyard of the United States.
China is now South America's largest trading partner and a major investor in critical minerals, transportation and energy projects.
If you look at all the countries that have such projects, they just happen to be near all of these strategic locations or sea lines of communication for global trade, Richardson told the Financial Times. You have to ask yourself: why all this investment in this kind of thing?
A four-star general who flew Black Hawk helicopters and served in Afghanistan, Richardson frequently warned of Chinese and Russian security threats in the region during his three-year tenure at Miami-based Southern Command, which ends November 7.
In April, Richardson visited Ushuaia, Argentina's southernmost city, where China had proposed building a port to supply Antarctica. Following what Argentine media reported as strong lobbying from Washington, Buenos Aires instead opted for a U.S.-led facility and also shelved Chinese plans for a multipurpose port 200 km from the coast , in Ro Grande.
Richardson said she was absolutely concerned about the Chinese proposal in Ushuaia because of its strategic location near the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage.
Beijing insists that a commitment to mutual benefit is the cornerstone of its overseas projects, an approach that contrasts with what it calls Washington's quest for hegemony and geopolitical advantage in America Latin. China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The general said she remained concerned about Chinese and Russian activities in Cuba, which include building spy stations to spy on the United States and visiting Russian warships in Havana. Our country is in the red zone… We have a lot of nefarious and malicious activity and we have no room for that in the Caribbean and Latin America.
She also tried to alert Latin American governments to the security risks of adopting 5G infrastructure from Chinese companies such as Huawei, which could open backdoors to countries' sensitive data and make it easier to hacking or theft of military or commercial secrets.
Huawei said there was no understandable evidence or plausible scenario in which its technology would pose a security risk.
Digital authoritarianism is exactly what China is doing, she said. You have a communist government selling these 5G solutions. They don't respect the rights of their own people and we somehow think they will do it to [us].
The general accused Beijing of endangering countries in the region when they desperately need technology, deep-water ports or energy investments. This is how they gain a foothold in countries, she said.
In August 2022, India and the United States protested when the Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese navy ship with antennas used for tracking and surveillance, docked at the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka. The Beijing-funded port was taken over by a Chinese company after Colombo defaulted on its debts.
China denies that the Yuan Wang 5 is a spy ship, but has agreed that it will not conduct research while it is in Hambantota.
Richardson said the United States and its allies must counter Beijing's growing influence by offering Latin American governments commercially attractive alternatives. She said large-scale economic aid, similar to the 1948 US Marshall Plan, which provided funds to rebuild post-war Europe, was needed in Latin America.
THE [Chinese] “They come with big bags of money and the BRI and they seem to save the day because countries have no choice,” she said.
Strategic competition is important. Democracy is under attack and we must invest and compete on critical infrastructure projects for like-minded democracies.
