China rebuts top US diplomat Marco Rubio over ‘Communist Party-backed projects’ in Peru

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks in Peru on Thursday on countering Beijing’s growing footprint around the strategic Chancay megaport, drawing a sharp response from China’s embassy in Lima, which defended its investments and took aim at Washington’s strict visa rules.
Rubio met President Keiko Fujimori at the Government Palace, where she confirmed Peru would join the Shield of the Americas, a US-led coalition against organised crime. The Peruvian capital was the last stop of a three-day tour that also took him to Colombia and Ecuador.
Fujimori, a conservative who took office in July, has courted Washington on security while protecting its trade with China, which buys 35 to 38 per cent of Peruvian exports.
“Projects backed by the Chinese Communist Party bypass Peru’s legal frameworks and pose risks to transparency and data security,” Rubio wrote in the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio ahead of the visit.
In its statement on Tuesday, the embassy said China had “never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries” and “never demanded that other countries take sides”.
“The western hemisphere is nobody’s backyard,” it added.
The embassy borrowed the “western hemisphere” terminology repeatedly used in the Trump administration national security strategy that revived the 19th century Monroe Doctrine last year. That document vowed to deny rivals from outside the region control of “strategically vital assets” there.

A separate post took a backhanded swipe at US immigration policy even as it reminded Peruvians they had been able to visit China without a visa for up to 30 days since June last year.
“China opens its doors and welcomes the Peruvian people with open arms,” the embassy wrote.
“So why do Peruvians, when applying for a visa to a certain country, have to undergo rigorous checks and even face threats that the visas of their entire family will be cancelled?”
The post did not explicitly name the United States, which has barred officials across the region who have dealings with Beijing.
The exchange has turned Peru into a test case for the Trump administration’s campaign against Chinese influence in Latin America. The country is the second-largest destination for Chinese investment in the region. .
In February, Rubio revoked the visas of a Chilean cabinet minister and two other officials over a proposed undersea cable to Hong Kong. Their immediate families were also barred from entering the US.
Rubio’s op-ed singled out Chancay, a US$1.3 billion deep water port 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Lima that opened in November 2024. Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping holds 60 per cent, with Peruvian miner Volcan owning the rest.
Scrutiny of the port intensified in February, when a Peruvian court limited the regulator’s oversight of the terminal. The US State Department warned at the time that “cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty”.
In April, Maria Elvira Salazar, the Republican who chairs the House subcommittee on the western hemisphere, said the port had “dual usage” potential and urged Peru’s next government to “take it back”.
Rubio also flagged the power sector, where state-owned China Southern Power Grid and China Three Gorges control all electricity distribution in Lima, home to about 10 million people.

He presented American investment as the alternative, citing a critical minerals agreement signed in February and US$5 million from the US International Development Finance Corporation for Peruvian mining. This week, the two governments also signed a memorandum on artificial intelligence, while Lima is weighing a purchase of 12 F-16 fighter jets worth about US$2 billion.
The embassy’s reply began with a defence of the party itself, which it said worked “for the well-being of the Chinese people” and “for the progress of humanity”.
It described Chinese investment in Peru as “transparent and in accordance with the law”, put its stock at more than US$30 billion and said the projects carried “not a single cent of debt”.
According to the embassy, China has been Peru’s largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. Peru has built up a US$52 billion surplus with China since their free-trade agreement took effect in 2010.
Senators question US ties as Fujimori joins Shield of the Americas
Fujimori’s courtship of Washington has drawn criticism from lawmakers on both the left and the right, including members of her own Popular Force party.
At a Senate hearing on Monday, Popular Force senator Juan del Aguila described China as “Peru’s main ally in the Asia-Pacific axis”. He told Foreign Minister Carlos Espa that closer ties with the United States must not come at Beijing’s expense.
Leftist senators questioned the terms of Peru’s entry into the Shield of the Americas. Some also doubted the independence of Espa, who spent 15 years as a communications director at the US embassy in Lima.
The minister argued the US-led coalition would make Peru far more effective against criminal gangs.
Fujimori formalised Peru’s membership of the coalition of more than 15 countries on Thursday, after meeting Rubio at the Government Palace.
She said it would give her government tools and information against organised crime and welcomed Trump’s “political decision to look towards Latin America”.
Rubio, who called transnational criminal and terrorist groups “the region’s main threat”, pledged US help to confront them.
He did not mention China, even when a reporter asked whether Peru would deepen its partnership with Washington despite Chinese investment in Chancay. Rubio focused instead on events in the hemisphere having a direct impact on the United States.
Fujimori, on the other hand, did mention Beijing, noting that Peru, the US and China all belonged to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Lima would “keep selling its minerals, fish and farm products to Asia, Europe and other markets”, she said.