BEIJING: China will always be Latin America’s “trustworthy” friend and partner, its foreign minister told his Bolivian counterpart, as Beijing and Washington look to firm their respective footholds in a region historically under the US sphere of influence.
“Latin America is the home of the Latin American people, and is not any country’s ‘backyard,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting at the United Nations on Tuesday (Feb 18), according to a statement from his ministry.
China wants to “continuously elevate the China-Bolivia strategic partnership”, Wang told Bolivia’s Foreign minister Celinda Sosa.
Bolivia, which established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1985, is among many countries in South America that have bonded economically with China through debt and investment.
The resource-rich country owes China, the world’s biggest bilateral lender, over US$1.7 billion according to World Bank data. Chinese firms have invested a further US$6 billion, statistics from the American Enterprise Institute think tank show, mostly in Bolivia’s metals, energy and transport sectors.
US foreign direct investment in Bolivia stands at around US$430 million, US State Department data shows, predominantly in the oil and gas and manufacturing sectors.
The US and China look set to go toe-to-toe in Central and South America over US President Donald Trump’s second term, with Chinese investments in the region, particularly in energy and infrastructure, challenging US influence.
Trump took little time in taking Panama to task over the Central American state’s ties to China after taking office, dispatching Secretary of State Marco Rubio with the message: end China’s influence over the Panama Canal or face US action.
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino later said his country would not renew its membership of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, to Beijing’s chagrin.