Beijing’s Great Hall of the People set the stage this week for a quiet hemispheric pivot. Ministers from thirty-three Latin American and Caribbean nations, joined by the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Chile, endorsed a draft plan to steer the China-CELAC partnership through 2027. Trade with Beijing has almost doubled to half a trillion dollars since 2014; the new agenda folds lithium, green hydrogen, and ambitious digital networks into the next growth wave.
Washington bristled. Hours later the U.S. Development Finance Corporation unveiled an enlarged fund for rival ports and power grids, while Panama—fresh from quitting the Belt and Road—opened a review of Chinese leases at the canal’s two mouths. But for many delegates the maths is blunt: Chinese demand absorbs a third of Brazil’s farm output, bankrolls Bogotá’s metro, and underwrites Chile’s battery dreams.
Even so, lessons have stuck. Future deals will face debt-stress screens, public-procurement audits, and regional value-add rules—signs that the era of blank-cheque diplomacy is closing. Great powers may set the terms, but a region once defined by spheres of influence is learning to set its own price—and perhaps, its precedent.
