China has transformed the “Global South” concept into a geopolitical Trojan horse. Under the guise of solidarity among equals, it’s eroding Latin America’s institutional framework. The rhetoric of horizontal cooperation is, in reality, a tool for vertical power, deepening ties of subordination and allowing China to set the rules in finance, technology, and governance, experts argue.
The covert hierarchy of the Global South
“The ‘South-South cooperation’ narrative presents an image of equal partners, but in practice it establishes a functional hierarchy,” Félix Maradiaga, professor of Practice on Global Democracy at the University of Virginia, told Diálogo. “Beijing sets financial, technological, and regulatory priorities through its triad of global development, security, and civilization initiatives [GDI–GSI–GCI] and regional frameworks such as the China–CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States] Forum. These platforms shift decision-making from open post-Cold War institutions to bilateral agreements or parallel forums, where China’s leverage is greater. The result is an asymmetry in rules and standards that appears artificially supportive but concentrates agenda-setting power.”
The Global South is not a genuine coalition of equals; rather, it’s a platform of discursive power designed to advance China’s economic and trade agenda. In fact, Chinese investment focuses on strategic areas like infrastructure to secure access to natural resources and capitalize on technological and commercial development opportunities in the region, Uruguayan daily El Observador reported.
“In economic terms, the concept of the Global South is more rhetorical than real, as it groups complex and distinct realities under a label that suggests a horizontal relationship that doesn’t exist,” Silvia Mercado, coordinator of the Latin American Liberal Network (RELIAL), told Diálogo. “This false symmetry hides clear hierarchies and vast inequalities between countries. China uses this label to obscure its true political strategy, which seeks to strengthen its global influence. To do so, it uses alliances, multilateral forums, diplomatic networks, and propaganda campaigns that shape public opinion and neutralize criticism.”
In terms of investment, China has forged diverse partnerships with 16 of the 26 Latin American countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations. Twenty-four of these nations have joined the Belt and Road Initiative, with more than 200 infrastructure projects in the region, Bloomberg Línea reported.
Security, sovereignty, and technology
“The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] continues its methodical incursion in the region, seeking to export its authoritarian model, extract precious resources, and set the theater with potential dual-use infrastructure from ports to space,” U.S. Navy Admiral Alvin Hosley, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), said at the South American Defense Conference (SOUTHDEC) in Argentina, August 20. “Their presence and influence have far-reaching consequences across all domains […] and may be used by the CCP to project power, disrupt trade, and challenge the sovereignty of our nations or the neutrality of Antarctica.”
In the technological sphere, the impact of Chinese companies is significant. The ECU 911 system in Ecuador, managed by Huawei and CEIEC, and the Carnet de la Patria in Venezuela, developed by ZTE, illustrate how the CCP’s cooperation in information technology can lead to violations of rights and social control.
“Cooperation in technology and financing in Latin America could pose even greater challenges, because these authoritarian regimes would be perfecting themselves through tools of greater control and surveillance, as is the case in Venezuela,” Pedro Urruchurtu, political scientist and coordinator of international affairs for the Vente Venezuela political party, told Diálogo. “We must say yes to technology for human evolution and progress, but not to make authoritarian regimes more powerful. We must say yes to business, but not at the expense of human rights. This warning is clear: Technological dependence is not neutral.”
The role of parallel forums and BRICS
A relevant aspect of this Global South is the shift of multilateral discussion toward “parallel” platforms like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), which legitimize a new asymmetry with China at the top. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the BRICS expansion has brought internal divisions and challenges to implementing its economic vision.
“Over the past 20 years, China has used various strategies to divide and weaken open societies. A classic example has been BRICS, a coalition of dissimilar and opaque countries whose only common characteristic has been and continues to be their contempt for liberal democracies and transparent capitalism,” Pedro Isern, executive director of the Center for the Study of Open Societies in Uruguay, told Diálogo. “The Global South as a concept has not worked and will not work in Latin America, because this is a region that is too diverse and far enough removed from its southern neighbors to generate empathy between the parties.”
Maradiaga argues that Latin America must diversify its partners, demand contractual transparency, strengthen hemispheric forums, and require that the United States and Europe offer real infrastructure and digitalization deals that compete in quality. For his part, Mercado recalls that China is deploying a constant strategy to consolidate the discourse of the Global South as a platform for its discursive power.
In short, experts assert that behind the rhetoric of equality, what’s at stake is subordination to standards and regulatory frameworks designed in Beijing. The Global South is not a space for genuine cooperation, but a tool of power that seeks to shape the rules of a new international order. In this strategic power play, Latin America loses if it confuses mirages of partnership with genuine, transparent alliances.
