WHERE IS THE AMERICAN PRESS?  One of the things we try to do at Urgent Agenda is to bring you important stories that are underplayed, or not played at all, by the American press.  The march of China across many continents is one of them.  Consider this, from the Daily Mail: 

As headlines about the frosty relationship between China and the United States are dominated by spy balloons, Taiwan and botched attempts at diplomacy, commanders in the Pentagon are increasingly worried by a more insidious threat: Beijing's growing stronghold on Latin America.

From tens of billions of dollars in funding for key infrastructure projects across the region to its own secretive, military-run space station in Argentina that could target American satellites, China's presence has grown.

Some 21 countries in Latin America are signed up to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative - a defining policy introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013 that wins power and influence by funding global infrastructure projects.

Chinese state banks have loaned $136 billion to Latin American countries since 2005 with terms US officials have dubbed a 'spiraling trap'. The cash has funded everything from major energy projects to roads, sports stadiums and covid vaccines.

Meanwhile, private Chinese firms control major ports on the Panama Canal which US officials say 'could be turned quickly toward military capabilities'. They supply the majority of Mexico's telecoms equipment and mine vast amounts of crucial minerals on the continent.

And as China's influence has increased, America's has diminished.

This ongoing power shift has triggered the consternation of political and military leaders who no longer hide their frustration.

General Laura Richardson, the head of US Southern Command, told a House Armed Services Committee Hearing in March: 'The [People's Republic of China] has the capability and intent to eschew international norms, advance its brand of authoritarianism, and amass power and influence at the expense of these democracies.

'The PRC has expanded its ability to extract resources, establish port, manipulate governments through predatory investment practices, and build potential dual-use space facilities — the most space facilities in any combatant command region.'

Richardson also said previously that President Xi calls leaders across the region 'all the time' to strengthen relations - and issued a veiled criticism of Washington's attempts at diplomacy.

'We need to do the same,' she said. 'And I think we can do better in that respect.'

She has also criticized the fact many major players in the region, including Brazil, Panama and Chile, have spent years with no US ambassador in place. 

'When countries see that we don’t have our senior diplomat there, it shows that we’re not serious,' she said. That's the message that it sends, and then they don’t really do anything of substance with the United States when we don’t have our senior diplomats there.' 

In Argentina, China is even accused of broadening its interests beyond simply civilian and infrastructure projects. Some US officials fear the Espacio Lejano space station in a remote area in the western Neuquén Province could be used for military purposes.

The secretive 200-hectare facility, which opening in 2018 at a cost of $50 million, includes a powerful 16-storey antenna which reportedly played a key role in China landing a lunar rover on the dark side of the moon.

China's space program is run by the People's Liberation Army and critics claim the station could form part of China's efforts to 'militarize' space and interfere with American satellites.

Argentina's former foreign minister, Susana Malcorra, told Reuters the country has no oversight of operations at the facility.

Beijing's foreign ministry said the station is for peaceful, civilian purposes only. 'The suspicions of some individuals have ulterior motives,' it said.

Washington claimed the station was 'agreed to in secret' and 'is another example of opaque and predatory Chinese dealings that undermine the sovereignty of host nations'.

In Panama, the US has also expressed concerns about China's ownership of major ports at both the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the Panama Canal, which carries about $270 billion of cargo each year.

The US Department of Defense has made the chilling assessment that these ports could 'be turned quickly toward military capabilities'. 

COMMENT:  And in the United States, many journalists are offended when the Bidfen family is probed regarding its own financial interests in China.  I mean, what could possibly be wrong with that?

America is asleep.  It has happened before.  But the year is 2023, not 1942.  We may not have time to catch up, and even appoint ambassadors, if the confrontation with China goes critical.

Read the rest of the Daily Mail piece.  It's important.

May 15, 2023