China Pressures Latin America to Promote Its Anti-Sovereignty 'Global Security Initiative'

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spent much of the weekend calling up senior officials in Latin America to discuss dictator Xi Jinping’s vague “global security initiative,” the South China Morning Post observed on Sunday, in what appeared to be an effort to bolster Beijing’s profile in the Western Hemisphere.

Xi first proposed a “global security initiative” in a speech in April, failing to offer any details about what it would look like but insisting that it was necessary to prevent countries from “unilateralism and excessive pursuit of self-interest.” While the comment at the time appeared to be directed more specifically at global sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine – which China itself has stopped short of endorsing – it appears to have morphed into a much larger attempt at giving China leverage over the sovereignty of other countries in the area of security.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed calls between Wang and three Latin American officials on Saturday: Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín, and Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada. The presidents of Uruguay and Ecuador – Luis Lacalle Pou and Guillermo Lasso, respectively – are considered “center-right” leaders, while Nicaragua is a communist dictatorship under Sandinista despot Daniel Ortega.

“Wang Yi said, from the perspective of building a community with a shared future for mankind, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative,” the Foreign Ministry said, appearing to refer to all three conversations, “and offered Chinese proposals for global development and security, which have received a warm response from more than 100 countries, including those in the LAC [Latin America/Caribbean] region.”

Wang also appeared to condemn the United States in the calls, complaining of “some countries clinging to the Cold War mentality and attempting to split the international community through ideological confrontation.”

“China has no geopolitical considerations,” the Foreign Ministry bizarrely added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry notably omitted detailing remarks from any of the officials Wang spoke to. The South China Morning Post observed, however, that the governments of both Uruguay and Nicaragua expressed positive sentiments towards the vague “global security initiative” after the calls occurred.

“Uruguay appreciated the proposals made by President Xi Jinping regarding the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, the main aspects of which coincide with Uruguay’s traditional foreign policy position,” the Post reported that the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry relayed.

Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada reportedly much more clearly stated Nicaragua would actually join the initiative.

As with Xi’s original speech debuting the “global security initiative,” none of these statements actually described what it is or would do if implemented.

At the Boao Forum for Asia in April, where Xi first mentioned the plan, he said that states should “stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture.”

Xi urged the world to “oppose the pursuit of one’s own security at the cost of others’ security” and claimed the initiative would help the world do so.

“In today’s world, unilateralism and excessive pursuit of self-interest are doomed to fail; so are the practices of decoupling, supply disruption and maximum pressure,” Xi concluded, “so are the attempts to forge ‘small circles’ or to stoke conflict and confrontation along ideological lines.”

Chinese officials, including Xi himself, have yet to specify how the Chinese “global security initiative” would help reach these goals.

Beijing has invested heavily for years in expanding its influence in Latin America. It has fostered allies out of diametrically opposed regional leaders, from socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to self-described Christian conservative President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. Ecuador maintains friendly relations with China even as Chinese fishing boats invade and destroy Ecuador’s most important ecological treasure, the Galápagos Islands.

Cuba is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s global infrastructure takeover program, even though the overt goal of the BRI is to reconstruct the ancient Silk Road from China to Western Europe. Argentina joined the plan in February on a trip during which socialist President Alberto Fernández laid a wreath at the tomb of one of history’s most prolific mass murderers, Mao Zedong.

The Pentagon confirmed to Congress in 2018 that it had extensive evidence that China was “lavishly funding” programs for military cooperation between China and Latin American countries, including “all-expense-paid trips for them [Latin American military officers], for their families to be able to live very high lifestyles in the country.” Outside of official training deals like the ones described in 2018, evidence exists of other covert agreements – such as photos of the Chinese People’s Armed Police training Cuba “black beret” repressive forces that surfaced in the independent outlet ADN Cuba last year.”

China’s arguably most significant footprint in Latin America is in Venezuela, a Caribbean country about 800 miles from Florida. The ruling socialist regime has largely sold off the country to China, taking in $5 billion in emergency loans in 2018 that it is currently still paying off with its extensive oil reserves. Maduro has also allowed Chinese companies to profit tremendously from construction and other infrastructure deals, in many cases without actually providing any useful service.