Before the Peruvian president's visit to China, I am afraid that he will have to make a "decision" with the United States, Chinese companies have won contracts worth 400 million US dollars, and the bigger ones are still to come, and Latin American countries may follow Peru's example to make a trade-off between China and the United States.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin nears the end of his visit to China, the relationship between the two partners has been further developed, and after Putin, another state leader will visit China next month. Peruvian President Boluarte will visit China in June and will meet with China's top leaders, with a focus on economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, Peruvian authorities announced. Although Peru's economic strength is not strong, it should be pointed out that strengthening cooperation with Peru will help China obtain strategic opportunities in South America.
In recent years, China has been continuously strengthening its cooperation with South American countries, and in the eyes of the United States, which has a strong Monroe Doctrine complex, China is simply snatching the dominance of the "backyard" of the United States, and the US Government has been trying to prevent China from cooperating with Latin American countries. In this context, Peru seems to have become a microcosm of the competition between China and the United States, with both China and the United States in communication. In March, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Peruvian Foreign Minister González at the White House. During the meeting, Blinken called Peru "a very important member of the Partnership of the Americas," said the United States would hold a formal high-level dialogue with Peru in May, and stressed that "the economic and security issues involved are extremely important." Although Blinken did not say it explicitly, it is not difficult to guess that the United States is likely to discuss China-related issues with Peru, and some cooperation between Peru and China has obviously become a thorn in the side of the US government.
In fact, in March of this year, Peru and China reached a cooperation that would make the United States jealous. The Peruvian government confirmed that a subsidiary of China's Jinzhao Group has been awarded a contract to build a port in southern Peru involving an investment of about $405 million. As part of the agreement, Jinzhao Peru will receive the right to use the port for about 30 years, and with this project, Jinzhao Group will become the second Chinese company to build a port in Peru. As for the first Chinese company, that's even more to say. In northern Peru, COSCO SHIPPING Ports Group Co., Ltd. is building the port of Chancay, a giant port that is China's most important project in Peru and which is also touching the nerves of the United States.
The port of Chancay is so important because of its strategic location, which is only 80 kilometers from the Peruvian capital, and serves both neighbouring Ecuador and Chile, as well as the agricultural regions of Bolivia and Brazil, which are landlocked in South America, through a road network. Therefore, once the port of Chankai is put into operation, it will open a direct route to Shanghai, China, which will directly promote the economic cooperation between China and South America, and its strategic significance is immeasurable! As early as 2021, the U.S. government criticized the project, and the Peruvian government at the time directly retorted that the U.S. was unwilling to invest in the region, so it had no right to criticize. Now it seems that the United States is ready to make another effort to prevent this strategic cooperation between China and Peru.
It is worth noting that in November this year, the Peruvian capital will host the APEC summit, and it is expected that the inauguration ceremony of the port of Chancay will be held at the same time, and China and the United States will participate at that time. If nothing else, the U.S. delegates will see the strategic cooperation between China and Peru come to fruition, and the Biden administration will be greatly stimulated. Before the Peruvian president's visit to China in June, he may have to make a decision with the US side in advance, after all, the US may not calmly accept the reality that China and Peru have reached a cooperation in the port of Chancay. But by then, the raw rice has already been cooked, and it is useless for the United States to be angry, and Latin American countries should learn from this incident and realize that cooperation with China will lead to faster economic development. In the future, they should make the right choice between following the US side and following the line of confrontation or China's line of cooperation.