Team Biden ignores Communist China at America’s peril.

Communist China’s military and rhetorical escalation against Taiwan is testing the Biden Administration’s response to America’s most dangerous geopolitical adversary.

We’re used to thinking about communist power in this hemisphere as isolated in places like Cuba or Venezuela.

Their military power, debt-trap diplomacy, and economic coercion are spreading like a virus. .

In July, former Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís cautioned in an op-ed that “Central America seems particularly fertile ground for Chinese expansion.” He warned of the Chinese capitalizing on the region’s division between the Nicaraguan dictatorship, compromised states like Guatemala and Honduras, El Salvador teetering on the brink of autocracy, and the effects of COVID-19 and systemic issues in several other nations. .

Since 2007, Chinese private and state investment in Central America has amounted to more than $2.3 billion in Mexico, $2 billion in Costa Rica, and $500 million in Panama.

The Chinese are dumping money into Honduras, Guatemala and this year announced a $550 million infrastructure deal with El Salvador. .

China is also investing in the energy sector in Chile, Brazil, and Peru. 

Certainly, there are signs of structural cracks in the China juggernaut: mounting debt, lower productivity, and an energy crisis

But the Biden administration shouldn’t expect that to impact China’s global strategy