The American Administration is preparing to boost by several hundred million dollars the funding of programs designed to counter China’s influence around the world, after having suspended many of these initiatives last year.
The Administration notified Congress, at the end of last week, of its intention to allocate 175.8 million dollars (about 154.5 million euros) to replacing obsolete and aging telecommunications submarine cables in the Caribbean and Central America, aiming to prevent China from strengthening its presence in the region, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The White House has expressed deep concern about China’s activities in the Americas, contesting Chinese ownership of ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, infrastructure projects financed by the Chinese Belt and Road initiative in the region, and Chinese investment in the telecommunications sector.
The funding for the submarine cables appears, on the other hand, to be part of a broader effort to restore support for initiatives designed to curb Chinese influence globally, in an amount that could reach several hundred million additional dollars.
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The initiative comes at a time when American President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are seeking to project an image of cooperation, and as Xi prepares a visit to the United States in the fall.
The State Department is also considering spending nearly 500 million dollars more (439 million euros) on programs directed at China in the western hemisphere, in Africa and in Asia, according to an internal document cited by AP.
“The United States must respond to the growing economic, technological and diplomatic power of influence of the Chinese Communist Party around the world, which compromises our national interests,” the document states.
Many of the proposed programs are intended to “recover diplomatic influence” through investments in areas where the United States previously had ongoing projects, but which were interrupted when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, promoted deep budget cuts last year.
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Those cuts, which led to the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the elimination of several hundred diplomatic posts around the world, also affected already approved projects, including some designed to counter Chinese influence.
The program presented to Congress is called the “Project to Counter CCP Control over Caribbean and Central American Submarine Cables.”
The funding is intended to replace obsolete telecommunications submarine cables in the Caribbean and Central America with alternatives considered secure, American, and from trusted partners.
In parallel, the Administration has drawn up plans to spend more than 340 million dollars (299 million euros) on more than 50 specific projects designed to counter Chinese influence in various regions of the world, including several countries in the western hemisphere, according to the same internal document.
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Among the initiatives that could be resumed are the creation of security operations centers in Argentina and Belize to monitor alleged Chinese threats against critical infrastructure and cyber platforms throughout the region.
The plan also envisages relaunching initiatives designed to protect Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay against alleged Chinese attempts at infiltration in port operations and illegal exploitation of high-seas fishing and critical mineral extraction.
The proposal also envisages countering Chinese influence over the choice of the Dalai Lama’s successor, or reducing international support for the Chinese space program and curbing the export, by Chinese companies, of surveillance and censorship technologies.
Trump is expected to meet with Xi Jinping in September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York. In preparation for that meeting, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio met last week with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional security conference in the Philippines.
