US warns China costing Peru its sovereignty

The Trump administration on Wednesday expressed concern that Peru risks ceding its sovereignty to the Chinese government after a Peruvian court restricted a local regulator’s oversight of a Chinese-built megaport. “Concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under the jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners,” the X account for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere wrote in a statement in English and Spanish. It added that the U.S. supports “Peru’s sovereign right to oversee critical infrastructure in its own territory. Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.” The $1.3 billion deep-water port in Chancay, northern Peru, is being developed by China’s state-owned shipping and logistics company, Cosco. On Jan. 29, a lower court judge ordered Peruvian authorities to refrain from exercising “powers of regulation, supervision, oversight and sanction” over the port in Chancay, the Associated Press reported. Peru’s government regulator, Ositran, vowed to appeal the ruling. “[Cosco Shipping] would be the only company providing services to the public that could not be supervised,” Verónica Zambrano, president of Ositran, told a local radio station Wednesday, the AP reported. Although it’s privately owned, the Chancay Port covers about 445 acres of Peruvian territory, Zambrano added, according to the AP, making it subject to government efforts to monitor and enforce compliance with local user protection standards. Lin Jian, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, rejected U.S. accusations that China is threatening Peru’s sovereignty. “China strongly opposes and deplores the U.S. false accusation and disinformation against the Chancay port,” he said. In a statement to the AP, Cosco said the court ruling “in no way involves aspects of sovereignty” and insisted that the port remains “under the jurisdiction, sovereignty and control of Peruvian authorities, subject to all Peruvian regulations.” President Trump has made U.S.-dominance in the Western Hemisphere a priority in his administration, referred to as the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, or colloquially as the “Don-roe Doctrine” — referencing the 19th-century edict warning against European meddling in the Americas. Early in his second term, Trump threatened to take over the Panama Canal to combat Chinese control of ports. The president has also launched a war in the Caribbean against alleged drug traffickers and carried out an audacious raid into Venezuela’s capital, capturing and extraditing the country’s president on drug charges.