Latin America: Beijing's narrative is dominating Washington's

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China's engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been seen as a threat to the US strategic position globally with recommendations of employing military, technological and economic might to force its neighbours into severing ties with Beijing. US 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", in a densely veiled swipe at America, the gathering sent a strong message about its reluctance to rupture relations with China.

In defiance of US President Donald Trump's trade war and crackdown on migration, the bloc has been promoting reconciliation to deliver a collective response. In last month's CELAC summit, regional leaders sought 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.

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.

In recent years, the China-Latin America relationship has strengthened, as two-thirds of regional countries have joined BRI and Beijing has emerged as biggest trading partners of Brazil, Chile and Peru. Trump's threats of taking over Panama Canal by force delivered him an ephemeral success once Panama withdrew from China's foreign policy drive. And Colombia's joining of 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 China was "using the BRI to set the theater and expand its access to rare earth metals and control of ports… 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 and for US national defense and commercial applications. The strategic chicanery surrounding the 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 launchpad for introducing initiatives and formulating action plans to build 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, extend visa-free arrangement to five countries, import more products and channel further investments.

Since the turn of the century, China-LAC relationship has grown at a fast clip, bringing promising economic opportunities to the region. Nearly 200 BRI megaprojects worth $100 billion were implemented over the last decade; bilateral trade in 2024 leapt 6% to $518 billion. By 2023, China's investments had also exceeded $600 billion.

One recent example of the China-LAC cooperation is 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 risk even though it antagonises 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 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 it with advances in infrastructure development and trade and investment. Acknowledging BRI has played an important role in Latin America, ass the studies 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, given the fact that Washington has for decades 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 the region and hasten its drive of seeking more autonomy in foreign policy.

While Trump'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 globalisation, multilateralism and multilateral trading system. In this battle of narratives between China and the US, the latter's narrative seems to have dominated the former's.