Sec. 2. Findings
617 words·~3 min read·
/bill/116/hr/8716/ih/section-2·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress makes the following findings: The People’s Republic of China has dramatically increased engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean since 2004. Latin America is the second largest destination for Chinese foreign direct investment. China has become the top trading partner of Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay. China’s trade with Latin America has grown from $17,000,000,000 in 2002 to $306,000,000,000 in 2018. Between 2005 and 2018, the People’s Republic of China provided Latin America with an estimated $141,000,000,000 in development loans and other assistance.
The annual amount of such loans and assistance consistently surpasses the annual sovereign lending to Latin America and the Caribbean from either the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank. The People’s Republic of China— is investing extensively across the region’s extractive sector and agricultural supply chains to more effectively control raw materials supply and pricing; has acquired and built new port facilities and other transport and energy infrastructure in Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and elsewhere in the region to expand its footprint in Latin America; and has developed strong partnerships and engaged in extensive deal-making in telecommunications and other technology-intensive sectors in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
In 2015, the People’s Republic of China and countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held the first meeting of the China-CELAC Ministerial Forum, at which they agreed to a 5-year cooperation plan regarding politics, security, trade, investment, finance, infrastructure, energy, resources, industry, agriculture, science, and people-to-people exchanges. China is also active in other regional institutions, including multilateral development banks.
The United States Southern Command has warned that China’s space and telecommunications ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean have created United States commercial and security vulnerabilities. China has spent more than $244,000,000,000 on energy projects worldwide since 2000, 25 percent of which was spent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although the majority of this spending was for oil, gas, and coal, China has also been the largest investor in clean energy globally for almost a decade.
China promotes the repressive use of technology— by selling crowd control weapons and riot gear used against demonstrators; and by developing tracking systems that can be used by governments to surveil and monitor their citizens. Although China did not originally include the Latin America and Caribbean region in its Belt and Road Initiative— at a meeting with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in January 2018, China invited Latin America and the Caribbean to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, referring to the region as a natural fit for a program that aims to improve connectivity between land and sea through jointly built logistic, electricity and information pathways; and Nineteen Latin American and Caribbean countries have signed bilateral Belt and Road Cooperation Agreements since 2017.
The People’s Republic of China offers to finance projects in Latin America and the Caribbean on deceptively easy terms that frequently lead recipient countries to become dependent on, and deeply indebted to, China. Chinese companies frequently engage in exploitative practices, including predatory lending, and project requirements that— provide little or no benefit to the host country; and facilitate corrupt practices. The Government of China expects that Chinese companies will invest the equivalent of $250,000,000,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2025.
Since 2017, China has used its increasing economic influence in Latin America and the Caribbean to encourage countries, including El Salvador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Of the 15 countries that still maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, 9 are in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely: Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.