Versión Español
Spanish.— The Peruvian government, led by Dina Boluarte, is in a celebratory mood. In addition to hosting dozens of world leaders for the APEC summit, it also launched the Chancay mega-port with the participation of her Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who traveled more than 17,000 kilometers to Lima to endorse this port that will ensure a commercial corridor with Latin America and serve as an entry point for China’s geopolitical plans.
While Boluarte praises the activation of the Chancay mega-port, described as “the largest in Latin America,” not everyone views it positively. In the United States, Laura Richardson, former head of the U.S. Southern Command, sees a pattern aligning with Chinese objectives. “This is a strategy we’ve seen elsewhere,” she told the Financial Times, highlighting its utility for the Chinese navy.
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The construction required $3.6 billion, with the majority investment coming from Cosco Shipping Ports (CSPCP), linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). According to Nikkei Asia, the state-owned company operated “more than 400 container ships and hundreds of other vessels in 2022, connecting 558 ports worldwide.” These figures likely increased over the past two years, reinforcing concerns that its 27 regional shipping services — spanning 54 countries and 52 ports in South and North America — could “become espionage bases,” as Euclides Tapia, a professor of International Relations at the University of Panama, recently told Diálogo Américas.
Xi Jinping unveils his Silk Road in Peru
Cosco’s ties to the PLAN and the magnitude of Chinese investments in underdeveloped countries raise suspicions. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping declared from Lima that the construction of the Chancay mega-port “is another successful project of Sino-Peruvian cooperation.” He also expressed hopes that the port could connect “the great Inca road to the 21st-century Silk Road.”
In his speech, the Chinese leader emphasized that “the friendship between China and Peru is deeply rooted” and noted that investments by Chinese companies in Peru have doubled in recent years. Between 2001 and August 2023, China’s direct foreign investment in Peru totaled $38.8 billion, according to the Center for Studies on China and the Asia-Pacific (CECHAP). Of this amount, $23.79 billion was concentrated solely in the mining sector.
This close relationship between Peru and China could pave the way for a potential military use of the Chancay mega-port by China. As Robert Evan Ellis, a researcher at the U.S. Army War College, explains, Peru’s growing commercial dependence on Beijing might render any resistance to Xi Jinping’s regime futile. If Chinese communism wanted to deploy troops, it would face no obstacles.
Another concern is that Peru “may not reap the benefits of its abundant resources and strategic location; instead, the Chinese might capitalize on them.” President Boluarte is correct in asserting that Xi Jinping’s official visit opens “a new chapter in the history of bilateral relations.” The issue lies in whether this chapter will be a dark one for the region, given China’s interests in its geopolitical competition with the United States, a rival now closer than ever due to Beijing’s footholds in the Southern Hemisphere.
