As headlines about the frosty relationship between China and the United States are dominated by spy balloons, Taiwan and botched attempts at diplomacy, commanders in the Pentagon are increasingly worried by a more insidious threat: Beijing’s growing stronghold on Latin America.
From tens of billions of dollars in funding for key infrastructure projects across the region to its own secretive, military-run space station in Argentina that could target American satellites, China’s presence has grown.
Some 21 countries in Latin America are signed up to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative – a defining policy introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013 that wins power and influence by funding global infrastructure projects.
