Trump presses Latin America to curb China ties from Chile to Panama

Trump’s administration has moved to press Latin American governments to reduce their ties with China, combining visa actions, warnings about key infrastructure, and pressure related to the Panama Canal, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The steps are being taken as President Donald Trump hosts Latin American leaders at a weekend summit near Miami, branded as the “Shield of Americas.”

According to the AP, the U.S. imposed travel bans on three Chilean officials over the possible construction of a submarine fiber optic cable with China. The administration also warned Peru against ceding control over a mega port built by China, according to the report.

In Panama, Trump’s approach included a threat to take back the Panama Canal under U.S. control, and the AP reported that Panama seized two ports at either end of the canal that had been run by a Hong Kong company. The report said the U.S. course reflects broader concern that Chinese investments and access could translate into strategic leverage in the region.

The AP described the current push as part of a sequence that the White House links to the rising scope of China’s interests in Latin America. It cited how China’s interests in Venezuela became more exposed after the U.S. captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, and how the U.S. has since taken what it calls forceful steps country after country.

Supporters of the White House pivot, the AP said, argue that it is necessary to respond to what they describe as China’s malign influence near U.S. borders. Other voices question whether a blunt approach can work in a region where China’s economic interests run broadly, and researchers point to how hard it may be for governments to avoid aligning with one power over the other.

Francisco Urdinez, an associate professor at the Political Science Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, told the AP that the approach could make “hedging increasingly difficult.” He said Latin American countries may have to pick a side, and that he expects a more fragmented region in which right-leaning governments align more closely with Washington while left-leaning governments maintain or deepen ties with China.

Urdinez also argued that China’s advantage rests on economic weight, describing research he has done showing shifts over two decades in trade patterns across South America. The AP reported that he tracked Chinese companies and money for his 2026 book “Economic Displacement: China and the End of US Primacy in Latin America,” and said his work found that by about 20 years later, all South American countries except Paraguay and Colombia were trading more with China than with the U.S.

Rebecca Ray, a senior academic researcher at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, said China has made itself relevant and even irreplaceable in parts of Latin American industry where she said the U.S. has been absent. In remarks carried by the AP, she said the U.S. did not invest in the infrastructure and related industries the region is seeking to close gaps in, while China, she said, had moved more quickly into new technologies and developed approaches needed to make those industries practical.

The AP tied U.S. security concerns to the White House’s National Security Strategy released in December, which blamed “years of neglect” for the loss of U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. The report said the strategy vowed to deny “non-Hemispheric competitors” the ability to position forces or to own or control strategically vital assets in the hemisphere, framing China’s growing regional economic role as part of that threat assessment.

The AP also pointed to a diplomatic and political dimension: since 2016, five countries in the region—Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras—have broken ties with Taiwan and opened embassies in Beijing. With seven of the 12 countries that still recognize Taiwan’s statehood located in Latin America, the report said the shifting diplomatic relationships reflect competition between Beijing and Washington.

For some U.S. lawmakers, the pressure on Latin America is tied to concerns that Chinese-built infrastructure could be used for military purposes. The AP cited Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, saying Trump was right to focus on defending the Western Hemisphere from China and that he stands with friends in the region against efforts to undermine America’s interests.

Enrique Millán-Mejía, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, told the AP that Latin American countries want economic prosperity beyond China alone, while also keeping room to maintain trade relations with Beijing. He cautioned that China’s advantage comes from investment already positioned in infrastructure, security, logistics and technology.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said China’s view of the relationship is focused on doing business in Latin America. The AP reported her saying “There’s no competition with the U.S. for dominance from the Chinese view,” adding that China expects something in return and that it argues Taiwan is in China’s sphere of influence.

In the AP account, the evolving steps—from Chile to Peru to Panama—are presented as an attempt to reshape how Latin American governments navigate a region where economic partnerships and security concerns increasingly overlap with U.S.-China rivalry.