According to a study by the US-based think-tank Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) published in late 2022, the number of Chinese-owned or operated ports around the world has increased significantly.
China’s presence in about 40 ports in Latin America from Peru to Mexico, combined with 11 satellite ground stations in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela, allows the country to have strategic locations in the western hemisphere, the SFS report said.
“China does not make random investments or choose geopolitical positions that are inconsistent with its strategic goals,” said Daniel Pou, director of the Dominican Republic’s Citizen Security Data Analysis Center.
Many of the Chinese state-owned companies involved in these infrastructure investments and development projects have ties to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the SFS report said.
China’s military, which supports the economic expansion of Chinese companies, has long been developing cautiously, reports Uruguayan content platform L21.
Beijing’s port infrastructures are just part of its economic, political and military expansion strategy to become “the great global hoard of raw materials, especially Latin American resources,” Pou said.
“China’s logic is not to support the development of countries forming alliances with Beijing, but rather long-term strategies that facilitate the development of its expansion, because it is an expansionist policy. Latin America is at the mercy of Chinese capital”.
One of the major ports that is developing is the Chancay Multipurpose Port Terminal in Peru.
The mega-terminal is intended to become a hub in the region, handling large volumes of goods to and from the Pacific, but it is essentially intended for shipping raw materials from Peru’s mines.
This project, part of the “Belt and Road” initiative, will irreversibly damage the Santa Rosa wetland, an important biodiversity corridor on the central coast of Peru, crippling artisanal fisheries in the area and already destroying the affecting stability of the ground, leading to coastal erosion and house collapses, the BBC reported.
Two Chinese companies are also planning and building a fourth bridge across the Panama Canal, through which five percent of the world’s maritime trade flows.
The project has been on hold since March 2020 and its funding structure is under review by the Panamanian government.
The PLA has sought to establish a base in Panama since China’s investment firm Hutchison Whampoa won concessions to operate two ports in Panama in 1999, and in El Salvador since plans for a mega-project in La Unión were announced in 2018.
Concerns that Beijing could use strategic ports to harbor Chinese warships grew after Uruguay’s General Assembly approved the implementation of joint defense efforts with China, the SFS report said.
China has been building its navy for decades to protect its interests around the world. Chinese port terminals have commercial value but are also “triple use” as they can be used for logistical support, intelligence gathering and as an option for future military bases, reports Chilean news site Mundo Marítimo.
“Chinese investments in port and airport infrastructure, while civilian in nature, bear the stamp of military hegemony […] and set limits for the country’s authorities on the strategic projects developed,” Pou said.
One example is Djibouti, which lies at the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. China has set up its first overseas military base there.
The Chinese naval base in the Horn of Africa is expanding its capacity and has up to 2,000 military personnel with weapons, ammunition and armored fighting vehicles, the Associated Press reported.
China is also keen to station ground forces at ports in the Gulf of Guinea and Angola, the AP reported.
Also of concern is Beijing’s increasing deployment of satellite ground stations in Latin America, according to the SSF.
Boosting China’s space program is a priority for President Xi Jinping, who wants to make his country a space power, Reuters reported.
“China flatters [Latin America] and welcomes places where little capital flows […] in order to have a monopoly on certain sea lanes; and that in itself is a military-strategic advantage,” Pou concluded.
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