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Congressional Daily Record
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Issued
April 30, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextSUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
INFLUENCE OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN AND CALLING FOR STRENGTHENED UNITED STATES ECONOMIC,
SECURITY, AND DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE REGION
Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself and Mr. Budd) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 707
Whereas the People's Republic of China (PRC) has pursued a
strategy of strengthening its security, economic, and
diplomatic ties with countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean, which has advanced dramatically over the last
decade and poses significant risks to the national interests
of the United States;
Whereas the PRC has leveraged economic, security, and
political incentives to induce countries to sever diplomatic
ties with Taiwan, leaving Belize, Guatemala, Paraguay, Haiti,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines as the only countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean that retain diplomatic ties with Taiwan;
Whereas the PRC has fostered security relationships with
almost every country in Latin America through arm sales,
equipment donations, joint exercises, and professional
military education exchanges, with the most significant
security assistance going to repressive regimes hostile to
the national interests of the United States;
Whereas, according to the former commander of the United
States Southern Command, Craig Faller, the PRC has trained
more military officers in Latin America than the United
States annually since 2015, and the PRC's National Defense
University was training five times more personnel from the
Latin America and Caribbean region than the United States
Army War College as of 2020;
Whereas the PRC is engaged in arm sales with several
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including
Ecuador, Argentina, and Peru, and has donated dual-use
equipment, including surveillance equipment from Huawei, ZTE,
Dahua, and Hikvision, to several countries in the region;
Whereas PRC-based criminal organizations operate in tandem
with transnational criminal organizations in Latin America on
illegal wildlife trafficking, money laundering, and the
shipment of precursor chemicals for fentanyl and other
synthetic opioids, and the PRC has taken insufficient steps
to address those activities;
Whereas, in 2015, the PRC surpassed the United States as
South America's largest trade partner;
Whereas the PRC has transformed a $12 billion trade
relationship with Latin America in 2000 into a $518 billion
trade relationship as of 2024, leading to projections that
the PRC could overtake the United States as the region's
largest trade partner by 2035;
Whereas 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
have joined the PRC's Belt and Road Initiative, 10 of the 11
South American countries maintain “strategic partnerships”
with the PRC, and 5 Latin American countries have signed free
trade agreements with the PRC;
Whereas, at the 2025 China-CELAC Forum, President of
Colombia Gustavo Petro announced Colombia's entrance into the
PRC's Belt and Road Initiative, its intention to join the
BRICS New Development Bank, and its interest in purchasing
PRC-made fighter aircraft;
Whereas the China Development Bank and the Export-Import
Bank of China have loaned more than $120 billion to Latin
America since 2005;
Whereas investments from the PRC have been concentrated in
strategic sectors including energy, mining, surveillance, and
port infrastructure, with the PRC and associated companies
funding projects such as the $3.5 billion Chancay mega port
in Peru, a $1.3 billion investment in Mexican cloud
infrastructure, and $2.72 billion in Mexico's automobile
industry in 2023 alone;
Whereas technology from the PRC has been adopted by
repressive regimes, including Maduro's illegitimate
government in Venezuela, to police and intimidate citizens,
while other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have
increasingly come to rely on PRC-made telecommunications
infrastructure, putting sensitive consumer data and
government systems at risk;
Whereas the majority of countries in Latin America and the
Caribbean do not have an equivalent mechanism to the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to
conduct oversight of foreign investment in strategic sectors
and potential threats to their national interests;
Whereas, despite the predatory nature of loans from the
PRC, the poor quality of completed infrastructure projects,
and the risk to national interests posed by many projects
undertaken by PRC companies throughout the region, the PRC
touts itself to Latin American and Caribbean audiences as a
reliable partner focused on mutually beneficial partnerships,
successfully amplifying that message through Spanish and
Portuguese media content, journalist exchange programs, and
high-level diplomacy with Latin American and Caribbean state
leaders;
Whereas the People's Daily has established content-sharing
and other partnerships with outlets in Argentina, Colombia,
Mexico, and Brazil and recently organized the 2024 China-
Latin America and Caribbean Media Cooperation Forum in Rio de
Janeiro;
Whereas 247 journalists from 23 Latin American and
Caribbean countries were brought to the PRC in April 2024 to
induce more favorable coverage of the PRC in the journalists'
home countries;
Whereas Latin American and Caribbean countries now house 44
Confucius Institutes, state-led educational programs that
include Chinese language lessons, cultural exchanges, and
academic collaborations;
Whereas the dismantlement of the United States Agency for
Global Media has limited the operations of the 450 affiliates
of Voice of America in Latin America, leaving many people in
the region without independent media as the PRC escalates its
dissemination of malign propaganda and information
operations;
Whereas the PRC has solidified its engagement in Latin
America and the Caribbean through its participation and
investment in multilateral institutions such as the Community
of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Organization of
American States, and the Inter-American Development Bank;
Whereas President Xi Jinping has visited the Latin America
and Caribbean region six times since 2013 and has prioritized
high-level engagement, pledging to invite 300 political
officials from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States to Beijing annually in 2026 and 2027; and
Whereas, in May 2025, the PRC hosted 17 foreign ministers
and 3 heads of state in Beijing for the China-CELAC Forum and
made several significant commitments, including a 9 billion
yuan credit line for countries in the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate—
(1) affirms that the United States Government is positioned
to be the closest and strongest partner to countries in Latin
America and the Caribbean and remains committed to taking the
necessary steps to counter the growing influence of the PRC
while promoting the region's prosperity;
(2) emphasizes the importance of continued investment by
the United States, including through Millennium Challenge
Corporation programs and Development Finance Corporation
financing, in energy, port, and mining infrastructure to
provide countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with
viable financial alternatives to predatory loans from the
PRC;
(3) calls on the Trump administration to devise a strategy
to counter the PRC's influence in Latin America and the
Caribbean across security, economic, and diplomatic areas;
(4) urges the Trump administration to strengthen its
ability to compete with the PRC in Latin America and the
Caribbean by increasing engagement with security, political,
and media personnel in the region through the enhancement and
enlargement of training and exchange programs; and
(5) encourages countries in Latin America and Caribbean to
adopt mechanisms similar to the Committee on Foreign
Investment in
the United States to review foreign investment, including
from the PRC, in strategic sectors that risks undermining the
security and independence of recipient countries.