US accuses China of enabling corruption and undermining national sovereignty in Latin America
- Assistant secretary of state Kimberly Breier says China’s growing influence in region is ‘eroding good governance and challenging state security’
A senior US diplomat has accused China of enabling corruption and undermining national security and the sovereignty of countries across Latin America.
Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs at the US State Department, told an Americas Society event in Washington that China failed to meet the America’s standards for transparency, anti-corruption and debt sustainability.
“In Latin America and the Caribbean, we have seen that China too often departs from these international standards, and when it does, its opaque practices enable corruption, erode good governance, and challenge state sovereignty,” said Breier, according to a speech transcript released by the organiser of the event on Monday.
However, Breier acknowledged that China was able to “play by international standards”, saying: “Not every Chinese investment project is malign or comes at the expense of your sovereignty.”
Brier was speaking following the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last week, where China attempted to address concerns that participants were at risk of a “debt trap”.
President Xi Jinping promised during the forum that belt and road infrastructure projects would be carried out according to internationally accepted rules, standards and best practices.
