In Latin America, China steps in where US has stepped out
To a large extent, China’s rise to economic dominance and deepening political influence in Latin America has been a quiet affair.
Even the United States – first preoccupied with wars in the Middle East and then turning inward to the tune of “America First” – seemed to hardly notice over the past two decades as its chief economic competitor and geopolitical rival dethroned Uncle Sam as top trading partner and go-to investor in much of his own backyard. At least until recently.
But for Miriam Arce Pinta, China’s arrival in her picturesque fishing village on Peru’s Pacific coast has been anything but tranquil.
More like a bang.
“The frequent construction blasts rattle our houses, leave cracks in the walls, and put everyone on edge,” says Ms. Arce, a lifelong Chancay resident and artist who has become the face of local opposition to China’s local megaport project.
When completed, the mammoth installation will transform the quaint fishing harbor and resort town, with its key resting spot for migrating bird species, into a bustling beachhead. It will become a hub for exporting the region’s prized raw materials and food back to China and importing Chinese products into South America.
It will certainly change the view from Ms. Arce’s hillside home, which might have inspired Monet or Matisse: Close-knit houses on slopes cascade down to a beach where an armada of pastel-hued skiffs jostles for space with food carts shaded by umbrellas. Two old piers with whitewashed railings carry tourists out over the placid bay, while amateur anglers cast lines into the surf.
The adjacent commercial fishing pier is mostly quiet, many of the local boat captains having accepted buyouts from the port builders or cash incentives to move elsewhere. Already, construction has put extensive tracts of the sea off-limits to Chancay’s fishing fleets.
“As if the explosions at
