Chinese Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean: Geopolitical Implications

• In Event: Chinese Investment in Latin America

Abstract

China’s soaring levels of trade and investment in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) provide it with a potential source of leverage that goes beyond direct commercial and economic concerns to cover security, political, and international order and power issues. China has played this game before in its contest with Taiwan for international recognition by LAC states but its oversized role in both large and small economies in the region gives it influence of a completely different magnitude from previous eras. Seen through the prism of a contest for influence with the United States in its traditional zone of hegemony, or as a more straightforward assertion of China’s national interests in protecting its rise on the world stage, China is accumulating significant capital in the region that could be used for multiple purposes, positive and negative. The author will take a critical look at what those implications could be in light of the reduced U.S. role in the region and its historic rapprochement with Cuba.

Author

• Ted J Piccone, The Brookings Institution