Was there no way to dissuade Peru from helping to equip China with this port before it was approved?
The top U.S. diplomat to Latin America, Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to Peru, is urging countries of the western hemisphere “to stay vigilant over Chinese investments after Beijing opened a massive deep-water port in Peru” (“US Urges Caution With Chinese Investments as CCP Opens Megaport in Peru,” The Epoch Times, November 17, 2024).
Complexity
American officials say that the just-opened port of Chancay could be used by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on U.S. vessels.
Assistant Secretary Nichols is oblique in his public remarks, saying that the United States has been trying to make sure that Peruvians “understand the complexities of dealing with some of their other investors going forward.”
I’m guessing that grasping the complexities means grasping something like: “The U.S. doesn’t like it when you facilitate Chinese espionage and aggression by letting them build things like megaports; and the closer the things like China-controlled megaports are to the United States, the less we like it.”
Nichols also says: “We believe it is essential that countries across the hemisphere ensure that PRC economic activities respect local laws as well as safeguard human rights and environmental protections.” If the Peruvian government were intent on safeguarding human rights and so forth, could the port have been built?
Simplicity
Via the CCP outlet Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party says that the port is a “bridge for practical cooperation between China and Latin America and is by no means a tool for geopolitical competition.” U.S. concerns about its military potential are “smears.” At least that’s cleared up now.
Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, who has just met with outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden in Peru, was on hand to participate in the opening ceremony and add to the agitprop.
Also see:
The Epoch Times: “Inside China’s Global Military Expansion”
“Experts and lawmakers are warning that the Chinese Communist Party, which rules China as a single-party state, seeks to expand its global military presence by creating new overseas naval bases out of the commercial ports it has funded and built abroad.”
