China Opens Controversial Port In Peru

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

CHANCAY, PERU (Worthy News) – China’s President Xi Jinping has inaugurated a controversial massive port on the edge of Peru’s coastal desert that locals fear will leave many of them without a hopeful future.

The mega port of Chancay, a remote fishing town where a third of its 63,000 residents lack running water, is a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco.

Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening of the Chancay port, about 80 kilometers (48 miles) north of the capital, Lima, on the Pacific Ocean.

Xi said that Chancay, a 15-berth, deep-water port, was the successful start of a “21st century maritime Silk Road” and part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, its modern revival of the ancient Silk Road trading route.

“It is very important that we work together to ensure the success of Chancay Port from construction through operation so that the route from Chancay to Shanghai will lead China, Peru, and Latin America to common development and prosperity,” Xi said earlier in a signed editorial Thursday that ran in the local newspaper El Peruano.

Don’t tell that to 78-year-old fisherman Julius Caesar (“like the emperor of Rome,” he says). “Our fishing spots no longer exist here. They destroyed them,” he told The Associated Press (AP) news agency, gesturing toward the dockside cranes. “I don’t blame the Chinese for trying to mine this place for all it’s worth it. I blame our government for not protecting us.”

INCREASING FOOTPRINT

It comes as China increases its footprint across resources-rich South America as part of broader efforts to rival the United States. Xi attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima as a sign of that cooperation.

However, Washington has watched with unease over the years as China established deep trading relationships with countries across Latin America. Yet Matt Murray, the senior State Department official dealing with APEC issues, insisted to the Voice of America (VOA) broadcaster that the port was “not a source of concern” for the Biden administration.

“I don’t necessarily see this as complicating our relationship in the region,” he told VOA. “We view it as a natural part of business that Latin American countries will have diverse trade and investment partners.”

However, with some of the world’s largest container ships to berth at Chancay Port in January 2025, residents fear the arrival of pollution and oil spills, further impacting fishing stocks.

In 2022, a botched tanker delivery at the nearby La Pampilla refinery sent thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into Peru’s famously biodiverse waters, displacing legions of fishermen.

Today, reporters noticed that a glance at the dying town center, mainly featuring empty seafood restaurants, tells the story of diminished fishing stocks and decimated tourism even without the port being operational.

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