Chinese President Xi Jinping took part in the inauguration of a major Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, on Thursday, hailing the US$3.5 billion project as “the birth of a new land-sea passage for a new era”.
In his speech at the megaport’s opening ceremony, the Chinese leader praised the project as “a successful case of Sino-Peruvian cooperation under the aegis of the Belt and Road Initiative”.
Xi said the investment would create a new maritime corridor between China and Latin America, “connecting the great Inca trail and the maritime Silk Road, paving the way for common prosperity for Peru” and other nations in the region.
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“More than 2,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors set sail across the Pacific, forging the Maritime Silk Road and connecting East and West. Over 500 years ago, Peruvian Inca people fearlessly crossed mountains and valleys, building the Inca Trail that traversed the Andes from north to south,” Xi noted.
“Today, the Chancay Port is becoming a new starting point for a modern Inca Trail. From Chancay to Shanghai, we are witnessing not just new development under the belt and road initiative in Peru, but also the birth of a new land-sea passage for a new era.”
The Chinese leader also urged project partners to boost transport capacity, improve services and strengthen connections between South America and China.
Xi arrived in Peru earlier in the day, visiting the South American country not only to celebrate the port’s completion but also to attend an annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.
Dozens of Peruvian officials and members of the country’s armed forces were on hand to greet Xi as he landed in Callao. A woman dressed in traditional Peruvian attire handed the Chinese leader a bouquet of red flowers.
His motorcade was welcomed by Chinese flags lining the route from the airport to Peru’s presidential palace in Lima, where the country’s president, Dina Boluarte, greeted him.
Xi’s delegation did not travel to Chancay due to security concerns. But he appeared via live link to about 200 guests, including leaders of the project’s majority shareholder, Chinese state-owned Cosco, its Peruvian partner Volcan and local officials.
His entourage also included Cai Qi, secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Party, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, foreign vice-minister Hua Chunying, China International Development Cooperation Agency director Luo Zhaohui, commerce minister Wang Wentao, finance minister Lan Foan, and the National Development and Reform Commission chairman, Zheng Shanjie.
At the event, Boluarte said the new port will add one percentage point to her country’s GDP once it starts operations, beginning “a transformation that will turn [Peru] into a strategic centre for Asia ... [and] a key player in global trade, which will translate into more investments and development”.
“This port in Chancay symbolises the potential of this collaboration [with China] ... and its importance is undeniable,” she added.
Besides the port inauguration, China and Peru have also signed several cooperation agreements, including an update of their 2009 free trade agreement.
While the new terms are not yet public, Peru’s trade ministry said that “new chapters and provisions have been added ... which will favour greater trade integration” between the two economies.
China also declared Peru free of foot-and-mouth disease, allowing Peruvian meat producers to export to China for the first time.
In Chancay, a city of some 60,000 residents and located 78 kilometres (48 miles) from Lima, celebrations began in the morning with performances by traditional Peruvian musicians and Chinese acrobats as well as a concert by a local symphony orchestra.
Xi’s participation in the port’s inauguration underscored its importance in the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s infrastructure scheme to improve trade and economic integration around the world.
Since the initiative’s launch in 2013, Xi has only attended two project ceremonies: one for a high-speed railway in Laos and one for Coca Codo Sinclair dam in Ecuador.
The latter is widely considered a significant failure, with structural flaws causing billions of dollars in losses, damage to Ecuador’s electricity grid and resulting in several local officials facing corruption charges.
Xi’s visit yielded a meticulously organised inauguration ceremony to showcase “the aspirations of the infrastructure projects” funded by Beijing, said Parsifal D’Sola of the Andres Bello Foundation, a Colombian-based think tank.
The event transpired amid favourable political and economic conditions in Peru, D’Sola added, and as the Apec gathering drew international media, heads of state and leaders of the banking industry and large multinational corporations.
“The Chancay port is the perfect opportunity, with the perfect audience, with a friendly government, to make a big splash, not only in Peru and not only in Latin America but at a global level.”
The megaport ceremony coincides with Donald Trump’s unveiling of his top picks for his second term as US president. His nominees include US senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, to run the State Department.
Rubio has been one of China’s most vocal critics in the US Congress. A Cuban-American and fluent Spanish speaker, he has long urged Washington to refocus on the Americas and counter Beijing’s rising influence in the hemisphere.
He has blasted left-leaning South American countries moving closer to Beijing, despite right-leaning former leaders like Argentina’s Mauricio Macri and Colombia’s Ivan Duque ardently touting Chinese investment in the region.
Should the new port live up to Beijing and Lima’s expectations, it could prove pivotal for South American trade flows across the Pacific, highlighting Washington’s challenge in keeping pace with Beijing to fund major South American infrastructure projects.
“They cannot compete with China on a dollar basis,” said D’Sola of the US, citing Beijing’s centralised foreign policy hastening the engagement of public and private companies.
And a confrontational approach by Washington, as happened during Trump’s first term, he added, could “backfire”.
“They might be able to exert some economic pressure on smaller countries in Central America, but I don’t think the US has enough leverage over South America.”
Additional reporting by Mark Magnier and Edith Lin in Lima, Peru
More from South China Morning Post:
- US lawmaker introduces legislation to revoke China’s trade status
- Xi Jinping arrives in Peru for Apec, poised to sign 30 bilateral agreements for China
- As Apec opens, the largest figure in attendance is not even there: Donald Trump
- Planned link to Brazil raises geopolitical stakes for China-funded port in Peru
- Port of entry: Peru’s Chinese-built megaproject is poised to reshape Pacific trade
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