But it was not successful. The White House attempted to prevent it from approaching China's Columbia | Washington | White House
On August 17th, the Russian Independent reported that Chinese companies approaching Colombia would cause Washington to lose its "most reliable ally" in Latin America.
Over the past decade, China has invested heavily in various infrastructure and technology projects worldwide. Latin America is one of the regions that Beijing is particularly concerned about.
According to reports, Beijing focuses on investing in the economic development of Latin America, but Colombia has long been outside of such activities. Now, the situation has changed.
Since Gustavo Petro, the representative of left-wing forces, took office as president, more than 40 Chinese state-owned and private enterprises have expressed their desire to invest in Colombia, which is estimated to ensure the creation of at least 40000 new jobs. Chinese people have expressed their willingness to assist Colombia in developing its tourism industry and expanding imports of textiles, coffee, and other agricultural products from the country. Chinese information technology giants such as Huawei, OPPO, and Xiaomi have begun actively entering the Colombian market.
China has become Colombia's second largest trading partner, second only to the United States. A survey conducted by Columbia Risk Analysis shows that currently, 67% of residents believe that the country should first consolidate its economic ties with China, and 59% believe that political relations must also be developed.
According to Sara Torres, a renowned Colombian expert specializing in political and economic issues, Beijing has not done anything earth shattering to "conquer" Colombia. Chinese people have only shown a pragmatic willingness to help Colombians meet their urgent needs for new roads and railways, upgrading key infrastructure, and building profitable new industrial facilities. Torres pointed out that China's attraction to Colombia lies first and foremost in its ability to distinguish itself from the United States and EU countries by never making harsh demands on Bogota.
The increasingly close relationship between Colombia and China has made the United States deeply uneasy, to the extent that the White House recently sent a special diplomatic mission to Bogot á in an attempt to prevent it from further approaching China. It is reported that this mission was not successful. The current left-wing president seems to have turned his attention to Beijing and is clearly not in a hurry to get too close to Washington.
Such diplomatic failures have brought negative consequences to the United States.According to Cynthia Watson, an expert at the National War Academy in the United States, in recent exchanges between the two sides, China has convinced Colombia that this cooperation is beneficial and reasonable.
Ingrid Chavez, Executive Director of the China Colombia Chamber of Commerce, is pleased that despite Washington's brainstorming on how to weaken China Colombia relations and bring Bogota back to its policy track, cooperation in the financial, economic and other fields between China and Colombia continues to develop smoothly. She stated that in this context, Colombia should view the appointment of experienced and proficient Chinese diplomat Sergio Cabrera as its ambassador to China, with the aim of promoting further strengthening of bilateral relations. With the rapid changes in the world order and the gradual loss of influence from the United States and its Western allies, China and Colombia's closer proximity may mean that Washington's position in Latin America will be further weakened.
