By Eduardo Baptista, Marco Aquino and Lucinda Elliott
LIMA (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Lima on Thursday, kicking off a week-long diplomatic campaign in Latin America with the inauguration of the massive Chancay deepwater port, one of the most ambitious infrastructure investments of Beijing in Latin America.
Xi will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima before heading to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week. Xi will also pay state visits to Peru and Brazil, both important sources of metal ores, soybeans and other commodities that support key Chinese industries such as electric vehicles and pork, as well as ensuring food security for the country’s population. 1.4 billion people.
Xi’s first task in Lima is to lead a ceremony to inaugurate the port of Chancay, together with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
“Chancay… will revolutionize trade and energize the Asia-Pacific economy,” Boluarte said in a speech Thursday at the APEC CEO Summit.
The Chinese-controlled megaport, built by Cosco Shipping Ports and located on the Peruvian Pacific coast north of Lima, has already attracted $1.3 billion in Chinese investment, with billions more expected as Beijing and Lima seek to convert to Chancay in an important maritime center between Asia and South America.
“We need to jointly build and manage the Chancay port well, make ‘from Chancay to Shanghai’ truly become a prosperous path to promote the joint development of China-Peru and China-Latin America,” Xi wrote in an opinion piece. published on Thursday in the official newspaper El Peruano.
Mario Ocharan, Peruvian director of the Chancay Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters that the first ship was due to sail the week of November 18, transporting Peruvian fruit to China.
According to Ocharan, the real goal of the megaport was access to neighboring Brazil, where a new rail line will connect the port to Brazilian supplies.
“The Koreans and the Chinese have expressed interest in building the railway,” he said.
GEOPOLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HEADWINDS
The opening of the port comes as Beijing seeks to further tap the resource-rich Latin American region, amid trade tensions with Europe and concerns about future tariffs by the incoming Trump administration.
Xi is accompanied by a delegation of more than 100 Chinese business executives, including heads of companies with the largest investments in Peru, including Cosco Shipping and mining firm Chinalco, which owns the Toromocho mine.
Chancay, China’s largest investment in a Latin American port, has set off alarm bells in Washington. Gen. Laura Richardson, former head of the U.S. Southern Command, warned earlier this month before retiring that Chancay could be used by the Chinese military and for intelligence gathering.
The United States’ anxiety over Chancay reflects a broader, decades-long shift in a region known as Washington’s backyard, in which China has overtaken the United States to become the largest trading partner of countries like Peru.
China’s state-backed Global Times wrote in an editorial published Monday that the port was a “bridge for practical cooperation between China and Latin America and is in no way a tool for geopolitical competition,” calling the accusations of the United States about the potential military use of the port “stains”.