Trump Takes Anti-China Crusade to Chile Ahead of Latin America Summit in Miami

For decades, Chile has navigated the geopolitical rivalry between China, its top trading partner, and the US, its leading foreign investor.

Those days appear to be over.

Just days before a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami and two weeks before a right-wing government takes office in Santiago, the US imposed visa restrictions on three Chilean officials linked to an undersea digital cable project proposed by Chinese firms, citing a security threat. This rare action sent a warning to the region that it must now choose sides as President Donald Trump seeks to reassert control over the Americas.

The US ambassador to Chile, Brandon Judd, informed reporters on Monday that the Trump administration warned the government about malicious foreign hacking into its telecommunication network and urged the country to screen investments, or it could lose a longstanding visa waiver policy that allows most Chileans to travel easily to the US.

The diplomat emphasized that the US respects every country’s right to trade and insisted that Washington is not challenging Chile’s sovereignty. “The only action we took was choosing who can come into our country.”

The US posture is prompting calls for introspection in Santiago.

“Chile has to start thinking strategically in a changing scenario of geopolitical confrontation,” said John Griffiths, an analyst at the security-focused think tank AthenaLab in Santiago. “Like it or not, the Trump administration is acting in its national interest in a region it sees as its sphere of influence,” said Griffiths, who is also a former Army general in Chile.

The choice the Trump administration is imposing could come at a high cost. China purchases most of the region’s commodities and has made significant investments in infrastructure, particularly ports.

After Panama’s Supreme Court voided a contract last month with Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. to operate two ports along its namesake canal, Beijing retaliated by instructing its state firms to halt discussions over billions of dollars in new projects. It also tightened customs inspections on Panamanian banana and coffee shipments.

Elsewhere, the US appears to be playing catch-up. After the Chinese inaugurated a sprawling port in Peru in 2024, the Trump administration warned of security risks and a loss of sovereignty for the Andean nation. The Trump administration is now proposing a $1.5 billion plan to support the construction of a nearby naval base.

In Argentina, the government of Trump ally Javier Milei has blocked a Chinese telescope project, maintained a freeze on a proposed Beijing-backed nuclear plant valued at $8 billion, and prevented a Chinese company from bidding on dredging work.

Read More: Argentina Is the True Test of Trump’s Latin America Power Play

“The Chinese are moving incredibly aggressively into the Western Hemisphere, into South America,” Mike Waltz, the US envoy to the United Nations, told Fox News in January. He added that Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are vigorously pushing back.

The White House’s desire to revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, outlined in a new US national security plan unveiled late last year, was also evident in Venezuela on January 3 when US forces moved in to seize Nicolás Maduro. Prior to that, Venezuela was exporting most of its crude oil to Chinese buyers.

US pressure is more nuanced in Brazil, where left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has ensured to maintain good relations with both Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

New Tensions

Chile, the world’s largest copper producer and a strategic gateway to Antarctica, has faced US pressure before. Last year, the Trump administration urged the government to abandon a Chinese telescope project in the Atacama Desert, an astronomical hub. Back in 2021, the US pressured Chile to cancel a Chinese-German deal to produce its passports and identity cards.

The stakes are higher this time. The undersea cable that Chinese companies proposed installing from Chile to Hong Kong is not solely about technology, but also national security, as 85% of information currently travels through such connections, Griffiths noted. Chile already has a deal with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to build a cable to Australia.

In a statement on Saturday, China’s embassy in Chile accused the US of displaying “obvious contempt for Chile’s sovereignty, dignity, and national interests.”

A spokesperson from the government of Chile’s outgoing leftist President Gabriel Boric expressed a similar sentiment on Monday. “In light of this reprehensible and unacceptable conduct, we would like to remind everyone that Chile is a sovereign country.”

The new tensions are emerging just as Boric, a frequent critic of Trump who denounced the visa restrictions, prepares to transfer power to José Antonio Kast, an arch-conservative whom the Trump administration — particularly Rubio — has openly supported.

An anti-immigration critic like Trump, the incoming president will attend the “Shield of the Americas” summit in Miami next week alongside several other Trump-friendly leaders from the region, ahead of Kast’s March 11 inauguration. Leaders from Latin America’s largest nations, led by leftists, particularly Mexico and Brazil, are not attending the Miami meetings.

Little is known about Kast’s foreign policy, aside from recent overseas visits to Hungary, Italy, and El Salvador to promote his anti-migrant, anti-crime platform. Businessman Francisco Pérez Mackenna, Kast’s choice for foreign minister, stated it would be inappropriate to comment before Kast takes office.

However, as he prepares for a summit with like-minded conservatives, Kast is expected to align with the anti-China stance — to a certain extent.

Chile is the world’s leading copper producer, and China imports most of it. It also purchases nearly all of Chile’s cherries and other fruits. In the energy sector, Chinese companies play significant roles in Chile’s power transmission and distribution networks.

In that context, the US isn’t offering any positive incentives for countries like Chile to cooperate, said Paulina Astroza, a political analyst at the University of Concepción. The move to restrict visas “reflects the traditional ‘stick’ policy — but the carrots are nowhere to be seen.”