Opinion | An Opening for China, Made in America

When President Trump threatened Colombia with new tariffs and visa restrictions during his first days in office, the opportunity was not lost on Beijing. As the crisis between the nations unfolded, China’s ambassador to Colombia posted a pointed message on X: “We are at the best moment in our relations between China and Colombia, which we’ve had for 45 years.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during his five-country tour of Latin America this month, tried to spin Mr. Trump’s emerging approach to the Western Hemisphere as an “Americas first” foreign policy. But Mr. Trump’s long and growing list of shortsighted actions has already undermined that early diplomatic outreach and created an opening in the region for America’s adversaries, most notably China.

Those actions include tariffs on aluminum and steel, the threat of tariffs on our North American neighbors, a foreign aid freeze, a deportation-centric foreign policy agenda and absurd territorial claims. As Mr. Trump alienates our neighbors through threats and ultimatums, Beijing stands ready to step into the void.

Over the past 25 years, China’s economic ties with Latin America have grown at a remarkable pace. In 2000, China was only the seventh-largest export market for the region. Today, China has become South America’s leading trading partner and the second largest for all of Latin America, trailing only the United States. Latin American and Caribbean exports to China surged to approximately $208 billion in 2023 from $112 billion in 2013.

At the same time, Beijing’s no-strings-attached approach to financing infrastructure and politically useful construction baubles across Latin America has proved extremely attractive: China has built a state-of-the-art, $54 million library in El Salvador and cricket and soccer stadiums throughout the Caribbean and Central America, among many other projects. Unfortunately, mirroring China’s engagement in Africa, its construction projects in Latin America also frequently disregard local labor rights and environmental standards.

In barely a month, Mr. Trump has managed not only to embitter some of our closest historical allies but also to push open the door even wider for Beijing. His proposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, now delayed, will not only harm consumers across North America but also create an opportunity for China to present itself as the more reliable economic partner in the region. The administration’s slash-and-burn approach to foreign aid — which in 2023 amounted to over $2 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department alone in Latin America and the Caribbean — will not only signal to our neighbors that the United States can’t be trusted; it will also put our national security at risk. In Central America, U.S. aid dollars have been helping curb irregular migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and combat transnational gangs like MS-13 that direct criminal activities in the United States and Latin America.

A singular focus on deportations is at the core of the Trump administration’s “Americas first” approach. Sending migrants back to Latin American countries overshadows all other issues on the U.S. agenda in the region up to this point, as Mr. Trump’s threats of tariffs and visa bans to Colombia made clear. These threats have yielded what some view as public relations wins, such as the use of U.S. military planes to send migrants back to their home countries. These images may make for eye-catching social media posts, but President Joe Biden’s deportation flights produced the same results — using the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aircraft that were designed for such missions.

In the short term, the Trump administration will claim some wins because many governments in the region may, like Colombia, seek to accommodate Mr. Trump’s ever-mounting migration demands to avoid retribution. But in the long term, the administration’s bullying will almost certainly backfire, sending longtime allies looking to shore up relationships with other governments.

American foreign aid — even when it was flowing — has always fallen far short of what is needed both in quantity and speed. Cumulative financing in Latin America from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which was established by Congress during Mr. Trump’s first term and invests in private sector projects in developing countries, lags behind that provided by the Chinese Development Bank and Chinese companies. While reports of increased funding to the Development Finance Corporation from the Trump administration could be positive, such funding must not come at the expense of the critical U.S.A.I.D. dollars that advance our interests in the Americas. Instead of freezing aid and imposing more tariffs, the Trump administration and Congress should expand American investments in and assistance to the region. Both would ultimately strengthen our national security.

Mr. Trump’s demands for a return of the Panama Canal to U.S. control, in his Inaugural Address and subsequent statements, have evoked expansionist ideals reminiscent of the Monroe Doctrine, which President James Monroe introduced in 1823 to deter foreign powers from influencing Latin America. Instead, Mr. Trump’s heavy-handed tactics will alienate our neighbors and achieve the exact opposite of Monroe’s vision. The Trump administration needs to quickly reverse course or risk permanent U.S. decline in Latin America as a voracious Beijing steps in to fill the vacuum.