| | | | | |  | | By Phelim Kine | | 
U.S. Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, visits with Guatemalan military members on July 14, 2021. | Courtesy U.S. Embassy Guatemala | China is pursuing a dramatic increase in trade and investment in Latin America. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers and regional experts are calling on President Joe Biden to reverse what they describe as years of U.S. underinvestment in and inattention to Latin America that they say has harmed U.S. interests. Adm. Craig S. Faller , who will retire later this year as head of U.S. Southern Command, has a keen sense of the security risks and opportunities posed by China's growing influence and activity in the Western Hemisphere. Faller has been visiting with Caribbean leaders this week and agreed to share some observations with China Watcher about his three years monitoring the region. His answers have been edited for clarity and length. In your 2021 Southern Command Posture Statement issued in March, you provided substantial detail about your assessment of the PRC's threats — economic, diplomatic and military — to U.S. interests in the region. Five months later, how has your assessment evolved? I feel an even greater sense of urgency about the PRC's activities in the Western Hemisphere. PRC influence in the region is growing, from IT infrastructure to space assets … cultural centers, and Covid assistance. The PRC has upped its mil-to-mil game, offering extensive military education opportunities, cyber engineering scholarships and annual "no strings attached" security cooperation packages that in many cases far exceed the value of similar programs offered by Western partners, including the United States. PRC state-owned and private businesses often exploit pervasive corruption in the region to undermine fair contracting practices and circumvent environmental compliance. A common tactic they use is to provide lucrative pay offs to local officials in exchange for favorable deals. To be sure, there are legitimate aspects of these activities that provide needed investment to a region still recovering from the impact of Covid-19. It's incumbent on all of us to forge a way ahead that recognizes the important role [China] can play as part of a rules-based international order. But here is the friction: The PRC does not seek fair competition based on rules. It seeks to create dependencies, not trusted partnerships. Through its deepening economic ties and coercive influence, Beijing is vying for key support from regional partners on U.N. votes and backing for Chinese appointees to multinational institutions. Ultimately, Beijing wants to create a global system in which authoritarian regimes are viewed as legitimate forms of governance. A system where the rule of law, human rights and free speech are stifled. A system where international norms are manipulated for its own benefit, and it's happening now. What is your security nightmare regarding China in Latin America and the Caribbean? The United States' strength is in its partnerships and alliances with countries that share our democratic values, respect human rights and strive for accountable governance. The PRC knows this and uses its economic and technological clout to create conditions where partners are forced to choose sides. Beijing is more comfortable dealing with authoritarian regimes like its own. The PRC's behavior in Venezuela provides a case-in-point. It's no coincidence that Chinese companies provide gifts and kickbacks to grease the wheels while doing business with the Maduro regime, who like their own, systemically abuses human rights. When I travel across the region, I see dozens of PRC port projects of various shapes and sizes in the works. The PRC is pursuing deep water ports in Jamaica , Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Argentina and elsewhere. There is an ever-increasing presence of Chinese companies near the Panama Canal and the Colon Free Trade Zone. These ports are designed to help feed China's appetite for food and resources, which is doing real harm to the region's environment. It contributes to deforestation in the Amazon, illegal mining and logging with lax environmental oversight, and overfishing. In fact, we're in the season when hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels position themselves off the coast of Ecuador, to include the Galapagos Marine Preserve, Peru, Chile and Argentina, dropping their nets and depleting fish from the locals. One major resource that the PRC seeks in this region is water. With just 8 percent of the global population, Latin America and the Caribbean have 30 percent of the world's fresh water. In contrast, China has over 18 percent of the global population but only 8 percent of the global fresh water. This helps to explain China's increasing interest in Latin America and the Caribbean: The region provides much needed water and arable land that can help China feed its population. Then there's the People's Liberation Army's interest across the region, in education, space, cyber, security cooperation and naval ports. The PRC is setting the stage for future military expansion and presence, just as we have seen in Djibouti. Our competitive edge is based on our values and culture, but I see this edge slipping. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Add West Wing Playbook to keep up with the power players, latest policy developments and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing and across the highest levels of the Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | How should the United States respond to growing Chinese influence in Latin America — economic, diplomatic and military — without seeking confrontation? We have what the PRC does not — a deep history of friendships and shared values throughout the region. Our strategic asymmetric advantage is our partnerships built to last, based on shared democratic values. This trust is the foundation, but we also must invest in tangible, mutually beneficial security cooperation programs. That means expanding our International Military Education and Training efforts and enhancing our global exercise program. We must meet our partners at the point of their needs, and work with all of them to get after common global threats like transnational criminal organizations, climate change and PRC influence, together. When I talk to my regional counterparts, I don't ask them to choose between the U.S. and China. But we do talk about values: free speech, the rule of law, respect for human rights, gender and racial equality. What I do say to my partners is "Where do you want to ultimately be with respect to those values, and how do you think China stacks up on that scale?" Our team at U.S. Southern Command works tirelessly to be the good partners, modeling ethics and professionalism, and our partner nations want to emulate that professionalism. U.S. activities, including humanitarian assistance donations, noncommissioned officer development programs, human rights training and programs like Women, Peace and Security are all making a difference. A mother finally getting the much-needed medical treatment for her child. Thousands of families who received purified water with the help of a Joint Task Force-Bravo project. Building partner military capacity and combat readiness as part of our joint exercise program. All of these stories prove that our team is providing real results to our partner nations. All of this goes a long way to build professionalism, resiliency, partnerships, and trust. That deters the PRCs strategic objectives in this region. — A tech update from Protocol | China. Protocol | China, backed by Robert Allbritton, publisher of Protocol and POLITICO, tracks the intersection of technology and policy in the world's largest country. Sign up for the newsletter and learn more about Protocol's research here. This week's coverage includes a close look the rape allegation roiling Alibaba and the company's overdue #MeToo reckoning, how the "factory city" of Dongguan became a mecca for robotics investment, and a new tool for tech regulators called "public interest lawsuits." TRANSLATING WASHINGTON — U.S. opposes Chinese Middle East bases: Mira Resnick, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs on Tuesday described the possibility of a Chinese military base in the Middle East as something the U.S. "cannot live with." Resnick spoke at a hearing of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, compounded that messaging by telling committee members that the U.S. makes clear to Middle Eastern allies "the risks — to U.S. defense technology, to U.S. forces — of a Chinese military installation." — Blinken South China Sea warning: Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Monday about "worsening frictions with China" in the South China Sea and said that potential U.S-China military conflict there "would have serious global consequences for security and for commerce." Blinken's comments follow Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's reassurance to Indo-Pacific allies on July 27 that the U.S. "will not flinch" in the face of increasingly aggressive Chinese military moves in the region. — USTR signals trade talks freeze: "The Biden administration indicated on Friday that it is not ready to begin talks with China on a long list of trade irritants not covered by the Trump administration's phase one deal," POLITICO's Doug Palmer reports. The USTR position defies a plea from nearly three dozen business groups that the trade negotiator pursue a redoubling of China's purchase and structural commitments stipulated in phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal that took effect in February. — Biden delays Hong Kongers' removal: "President Joe Biden on Thursday directed the Department of Homeland Security to defer for 18 months the removal of certain Hong Kong residents in the United States, citing Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and imposition of a strict national security law in the semi-autonomous Chinese city," POLITICO's Quint Forgey reports. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Sunday blasted Biden's move as "another embodiment of the U.S. side's vile behaviors in grossly interfering in China's Hong Kong affairs." — Taiwan arms sale approval: The State Department last week confirmed that it will proceed with a $750 million arms sale to the self-governing island of Taiwan. The weaponry includes 40 new M109 self-propelled howitzers and conversion kits that transform projectiles into "more precise GPS-guided munitions." China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday that criticized the deal for sending "wrong signals to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces." — Chinese thermostats' voter fraud theory: A Trump appointee to the Department of Justice, Jeffrey Clark, alleged in a December 2020 email that Chinese-produced thermostats played a role in "foreign election interference" in last year's U.S. presidential election. Clark asserted he had evidence that ballot counting machines produced by Dominion Voting Systems "accessed the Internet through a smart thermostat with a net connection trail leading back to China." Then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue cold-shouldered Clark's proposal to devote resources to explore his theory. | | Hot from the China Watchersphere | | — Canada slams "unjust" Spavor conviction: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau derided as "unacceptable and unjust" a Beijing court sentencing on Wednesday of Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor to an 11-year prison term for espionage. Dominic Barton, Canada's ambassador to Beijing, said Spavor's arrest and conviction reflected a "geopolitical process" linked to ongoing extradition hearings for senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, POLITICO's Andy Blatchford reports . Canadian authorities detained Meng in December 2018 on a U.S. extradition warrant, a move that infuriated Beijing. Days later, Chinese authorities arrested both Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, for alleged espionage. In a statement issued Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was "deeply troubled by the lack of transparency" surrounding Spavor and Kovrig's legal proceedings. — Lithuania's Taiwan ties tussle: Lithuania is the latest country to hit China's perennial sore spot over perceived unreasonable foreign engagement with Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday recalled its ambassador to Lithuania and demanded that Lithuania do likewise in reprisal for allowing Taiwan to christen its new representative office in Vilnius the " Taiwanese Representative Office." China insists that any of Taiwan's limited international official outposts be demarked as "Taipei" rather than "Taiwan." An angry Chinese Foreign Ministry statement urged Lithuania to "immediately rectify its wrong decision." — Outbreak control failure draws reprimands: Chinese authorities have punished more than 40 government officials for "negligence" related to the country's widening coronavirus outbreak. CNN reported on Tuesday that those reprimanded include "heads of local governments, health commissions, hospitals and airports." China recorded a total of 181 new infections on Monday, the highest daily tally since late July, and authorities are scrambling to test millions of citizens in a bid to contain the outbreak. — China's 2 billion vaccine dose pledge: The Chinese government on Thursday pledged to supply foreign countries a total of 2 billion doses of China's domestically produced Covid-19 vaccines by end-2021. That total comes on top of the 770 million doses that China has sent to foreign countries since September 2020. China has also agreed to donate 110 million vaccine doses to COVAX, the international body backed by the World Health Organization "to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world." — America's Beijing Olympics' antipathy: A total of 49 percent of Americans polled in an Axios and Momentive survey released on Saturday "believe that China's human rights record should prevent it from hosting the upcoming winter Olympics." That figure is likely to rise over the coming months as an international coalition of activists and organizations intensifies efforts to make China's human rights record — particularly its abuses against religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet and its tightening grip on Hong Kong — the Beijing Olympics' dominant narrative. | | | — Censors disappear Olympian Mao pins: Remember those lapel pins depicting an iconic image of former Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong worn at the podium by gold medal Chinese Olympians Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi last week? Chinese censors would prefer you forget all about them. Hours after the images of the two athletes circulated across Chinese social media platforms with expressions of praise for their Mao-boosting display, censors started removing all references to it, the Daily Beast reports . State broadcaster completed that memory-holing by editing out the Mao lapel pins from footage of Bao and Zhong's Tokyo podium moment. — Weibo executive arrested for bribery: Chinese police arrested senior Weibo public relations executive Mao Taotao for suspected bribery, Reuters reported on Tuesday. An internal company memo confirmed Mao's dismissal for having "seriously harmed the interests of the company." It did not elaborate. — Covid outbreak control concerns: China's resurgence of Covid-19 cases since end-July has sparked online debate about the severity of the outbreak and some subtle questioning of how easily it can be contained. The hashtag " How long will it take for the current round of outbreaks to be largely controlled" had registered more than 200 million shares by Tuesday. One verified "Red V" account reliably represented the official narrative by asserting that the outbreak "can be quickly overcome." A Wuhan-based Weibo user signaled a more cautious tone, perhaps tapping recollections of how Covid-19 swept the city in late 2019. "Overnight, supermarkets are empty, shopping malls are empty … and we in Wuhan seem to have returned to the state we were in during the epidemic last year," the Weibo user wrote. — Tencent civil lawsuit: Beijing prosecutors on Friday launched a "civil public-interest lawsuit" against Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Chinese Internet services and products conglomerate Tencent. The lawsuit alleges that Shenzhen Tencent's WeChat messaging app's "Youth Mode," a feature that restricts user access to certain online content, violated unspecified provisions of child protection laws. The lawsuit follows WeChat's move last week to impose age-specific time restrictions for players of its popular Honour of Kings video game app. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | — Alibaba sparks "drinking culture" debate: The alleged rape of a female employee of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has fueled online debate about what Alibaba's chief executive officer, Daniel Zhang , on Monday termed a workplace "ugly forced drinking culture." Zhang was responding to an Alibaba employee's allegation that her manager and client sexually assaulted her after forcing her to drink alcohol into a state of severe inebriation while on a business trip. The alleged perpetrators have been dismissed by their employers and police are investigating the incident. Meanwhile, the related hashtag, "How much do young people resent office drinking culture ," had garnered more than 160 million shares by Tuesday. Many Weibo users' comments reflected resentment at "being plied with alcohol" at work events. One Weibo user equated work-related binge drinking as a form of authoritarian psychological torture. "Drinking is essentially an act of asserting power, and a very low-level one at that. For the person who pours alcohol for others, on a psychological level, he is forcing others to hurt their own bodies to establish 'hierarchical order' — either by pouring alcohol, or by receiving it." Thanks to: Ben Pauker, Luiza Ch. Savage, Matt Kaminski and editor John Yearwood. Do you have tips? Chinese-language stories we might have missed? Would you like to contribute to China Watcher or comment on this week's items? Email us at chinawatcher@politico.com. | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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