US President Donald Trump’s drive to reassert US supremacy in Latin America has already squeezed China’s interests in Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. Now, Nicaragua could be shaping up as the next economic battleground between the two powers, a scholar has warned.
The American leader has yet to target Nicaragua since returning to office, but that could change if China revives an ambitious project to build a canal cutting across the country to connect the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, said Zhang Junhua, a senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies, in a position paper.
The waterway has been in limbo for years, but Trump’s assertive foreign policy – which has seen him pressure a string of Latin American governments in recent months – could push Beijing to upsize its role in the project, Zhang suggested in the paper published on Thursday.
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China has recently “intensified” its efforts to find alternatives to the Panama Canal, Zhang noted. The waterway was previously owned by a subsidiary of the Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison, but in January ownership passed to a pair of European shipping companies after months of pressure from Trump.
The ruling from Panama’s supreme court is far from the only setback China has faced in Latin America. In January, Beijing also condemned the US capture of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, which paved the way for Washington to increase its influence over the country’s vast oil industry.
More recently, China accused Washington of “inventing allegations” to justify its sanctions against Cuba – a Chinese ally since 1960 – and its blockade of the island. Now, Washington is “likely” to target other countries in the region where China is looking to build infrastructure, such as Nicaragua, Chile and Peru, Zhang said.
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