Joe Biden appeared on the periphery of a “family photo” of world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (Apec) dominated by the rise of China.
Xi Jinping stood centre stage in the picture with Dina Boluarte, leader of the host nation Peru, which had rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese president.
Although photo calls can be arbitrary in the positioning, the image appeared to sum up Mr Biden’s ebbing power in a region once considered “America’s backyard”.
This year’s Apec summit was undeniably all about China and Mr Xi, with Mr Biden’s presence – his first visit to South America as president – very much feeling like an afterthought.
During his visit, the Chinese leader made the most of his country’s century-old deep cultural ties to Peru, which has a large Chinese community, as well as inaugurating a new £2.6 billion mega-port just north of Lima, built and to be operated by Chinese state-owned company Cosco.
“Each time I am in this beautiful land, I become immersed in the Peruvian people’s deep friendship and affection towards the Chinese. This affection is rooted in the wisdom of millennial civilisations,” Mr Xi wrote in an op-ed in a Peruvian newspaper, hamming up the parallels between the two cradles of ancient cultures on the opposite sides of the Pacific.
But behind the flowery compliments, Beijing has been engaging in hard-headed economic diplomacy that the US, over several administrations, has failed to match in a region. Through its Belt & Road initiative, China has sunk an estimated $286 billion into infrastructure projects across Latin America.
After a meeting with Mr Biden on Saturday, Mr Xi said their two countries’ relationship was the “most important” of the world, and has “a bearing on the future of humankind”. He said relations should be about co-operation, not conflict.
Xi next plans a week-long diplomatic blitz in Latin America that includes a refurbished free-trade agreement with Peru, inaugurating the massive Chancay port there and being welcomed in Brazil’s capital next week for a state visit. China also announced plans to host the Apec summit in 2026.
China is seeking Latin America’s metal ores, soybeans, and other commodities, but US officials worry they may also be looking for new US-adjacent military and intelligence outposts. Chinese state-backed media has called those accusations a smear.
Mr Trump’s new administration is packed with China hawks, and the president-elect has promised to hike huge tariffs on Chinese goods.
On Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, described the transition as “a time when competitors and adversaries can see possible opportunity”. Mr Biden will stress with Xi the “need to maintain stability, clarity, predictability through this transition between the United States and China”.
Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Council of the Americas, a Washington DC-based thinktank, says most Latin American nations, with the exception of leftist dictatorships such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, would welcome stronger ties with the US.
“Hindsight is 20-20 but it really does seem that the Biden administration could have done more to develop a strategic economic relationship with Latin America, particularly in the context of infrastructure,” Mr Farnsworth adds.
“One of the real advantages that China has developed with South America in particular is not just trade but also development in infrastructure, roads, ports, bridges, the types of things that make economies work but also, frankly, have prestige for the countries that provide them.”
China’s foreign policy often comes without strings, whereas American relations can depend on partners adhering to Western democratic and economic norms.
No photo with Boluarte
Mr Biden may have had his own reasons for not gifting Ms Boluarte, Peru’s president, a photo opportunity at his side.
With a disapproval rating of 92 per cent, she has become a pariah both at home and abroad, mired in a string of corruption scandals while presiding over what human rights groups characterise as extrajudicial killings of anti-government protesters.
Yet worst of all, her government is accused of helping an equally reviled congress in passing counter-reforms to dismantle democratic checks and balances while helping the organised crime groups, from cocaine traffickers to illegal miners, that increasingly control Peruvian politics.
These include measures to stop police carrying out surprise raids on suspects’ homes or seize illicit explosives, and to make it harder to investigate the murderous extortionists increasingly plaguing the Andean country.
Western diplomats, led by Washington, are understood to have been working frantically behind the scenes to save Peru’s fragile democratic institutions. Mr Biden’s concerns about the Boluarte administration’s democratic backsliding will not, of course, have been shared by his autocratic Chinese counterpart.
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