China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), a subsidiary of China Communication Construction Group (CCCC), which has been involved in fraudulent practices in several countries, is carrying out design, rehabilitation, and expansion work on 107 kilometers of National Route 32 (Río Frío-Limón) in Costa Rica, creating challenges that threaten the country’s social, economic, and environmental balance.
A survey entitled What do you think in Latin America about the European Union? revealed that China and Russia lead the negative image ranking among participants in the poll, which was carried out by the Latinobarómetro pollster, at the request of the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, and Nueva Sociedad/Grupo Diálogo y Paz magazine, headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Only 19 percent of the people interviewed see China in a positive light. Russia scored even less, with only 17 percent.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—indirectly underwritten by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and with the Western response hampered by the threat of nuclear war—highlights a world transitioning away from the institutional, economic, and ideological order that has prevailed since the end of World War II. The transition will have significant and grave implications, and its dynamics are likely to be uneven, with the U.S. and democratic, market-oriented states likely to be some of the most adversely affected.
The Chinese fleet that periodically threatens the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador goes beyond engaging in predatory fishing that plunders the oceans of Latin America. The vessels also throw tons of waste into the sea, killing wildlife, polluting the waters, and destroying an ecosystem that is home to more than 7,000 endemic species.
The U.S. government remains vigilant to the movements of Russia and China in the southern part of the American continent. On March 24, during a hearing before the U.S. Senate, General Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), warned about the “aggressive expansion” of both countries in the region.
A K-8 Karakorum two-seat single-engine jet trainer and light attack aircraft, which was on a night training mission, crashed on September 20, 2021 north of Omdurman, on the west bank of the Nile, in Sudan, The Defense Post reported. The accident — which killed two pilots —was due to a technical failure, said Sudanese Armed Forces Spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmed Khalifa al-Sham in a September 21 statement. Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation of China and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex produce the K-8, according to the same source.
Continued demand for shark fin soup, dumplings, and other related dishes served in restaurants around the world — particularly in China — perpetuates the practice of finning, which consists of removing fins from sharks and discarding the rest of the animal back into the ocean. The sharks are often still alive when discarded, but without their fins. Unable to swim effectively, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and die of suffocation or are eaten by other predators, according to marine biologists.
Hundreds of Peruvian citizens protested February 18 in front of the offices of Chinese state-owned company Cosco Shipping Ports in Chancay, Peru, “due to the constant explosions it carries out to modify the bay” to build a megaport in the city, said the Peruvian nongovernmental organization (NGO) CooperAcción, which promotes social and environmental rights.
On January 14, 2022, Ecuador formalized an expansion of 60,000 square kilometers in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, which will add to the 138,000 km2 of existing protected areas. The new marine reserve was named Hermandad (Brotherhood).
For a long time, it could be said that China, unlike Russia, sought to be loved rather than to be feared; that it wanted to seduce, project a positive image of itself in the world, and arouse admiration. Today, Beijing has not given up on seduction, on its attractiveness, and on its ambition to shape international norms. Not “losing face” remains very important for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). And yet, Beijing is also increasingly comfortable with infiltration and coercion: its influence operations have been considerably hardened in recent years and its methods increasingly resemble Moscow’s. The Party-State has entered a “Machiavellian moment” in the sense that Beijing now appears to believe that, as Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “it is better to be feared than loved.” This evolution shows a “Russification” of Chinese influence operations. And our report [see the full report] analyzes this evolution, with the ambition of covering the entire spectrum of its tools of influence, from the most benign (public diplomacy) to the most malign — which means interfering in other countries’ affairs (clandestine activities). To do so, our analysis proceeds in four parts, successively presenting the concepts, actors, actions pertaining to this moment, and it ends with several case studies.
Loss of habitat through deforestation, lack of natural prey, and revenge killings from ranchers for livestock predation have for decades been among the major causes of the jaguar population decline in Central and South America. Since the mid-2010s, however, another factor has been threatening the large cat species with extinction: the illegal trade of jaguar parts bound for China.
This year will be no exception when it comes to the Chinese fishing fleet’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices in the territorial waters of Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador, the Argentine independent journalism site Urgente 24 said on January 3, 2022.
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