Los Angeles —
U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week, bolstering engagement with leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean — regions where China is making deep economic and diplomatic inroads.
The administration is offering a series of economic, health and climate initiatives that it hopes will counter Beijing's growing influence and strengthen democratic partners — an approach similar to Biden's strategy toward Indo-Pacific countries during his trip to Asia last month.
In both regions, Biden's message is that countries will benefit by aligning themselves to his vision of economic prosperity: strengthening the middle class while committing to democracy, human rights, respect for the environment and the "international rules-based order."
"Trickle-down economics does not work," Biden repeatedly remarked during the summit, referring to the theory that financial benefits for corporations and the wealthy will trickle down to everyone else.
"When we invest in strengthening workers and the middle class," Biden said, "the poor have a ladder up, and those at the top do just fine. That's how we can increase opportunity and decrease persistent inequity."
That message may resonate in Latin America, one of the most unequal regions in the world, where the richest 10% of people enjoy 54% of the national income, according to the .
The administration's modest initiatives and promise of more investment may not be enough to slow Beijing's rapid expansion in the region, however. Since Biden came into office early last year, China has widened its trade gap with the U.S. in large swaths of Latin America, according to a Reuters analysis of U.N. trade data from 2015 to 2021.
When Mexico, the top U.S. trade partner, is excluded, analysis of the latest available data shows that total trade flows — imports and exports — between Latin America and China reached nearly $247 billion last year, well above the $174 billion with the U.S.
Twenty-one out of have signed on to the Belt and Road Initiative, China's signature global infrastructure investment project. Meanwhile, since its launch in June 2021 at the Group of Seven summit, Build Back Better World, Washington's counter to Beijing's vision, has yet to take off.
And although the U.S. donated almost 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the region since Biden took office, the U.S. had already fallen behind the communist superpower at the start of the pandemic. In the early phase of the crisis, it was China that Latin American and Caribbean countries depended on for their shots.
"The United States is playing catch-up," said Diego Abente Brun, director of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program at George Washington University.
To do that, he said, the administration will need to take into account geopolitical vs. ideological considerations and "have a little bit more of a flexible approach" in dealing with countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The three countries were not invited to the summit because they were deemed nondemocratic, prompting the boycott by leaders of several key partner nations such as Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Bolivia.
Observers have noted the administration's inability to offer what many in the region most desire: tariff cuts and other trade incentives that would facilitate deeper ties. With Trump-era protectionist sentiments still running high, Congress has little appetite for opening American market access.
Compared with China's one-party state, the politically polarized Washington has another disadvantage: The U.S. administration, and its policies, could change with each four-year election cycle.
"China is proposing cooperation for 2035 and 2050," said Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. "There is a very clear, long-term perspective."
"The U.S. used to be, a couple of decades ago, much more clear. You didn't have this political dispute that you have today," he told VOA.
With legislative proposals hamstrung by a polarized Congress, Biden is rallying American corporations to invest more in the region.
"When we combine the ability of government to direct economic activity towards specific challenges — to help mitigate risks, guard against unfair practices and create predictable demand — with the agility of the private sector, I believe we can deliver real improvement for people's lives," Biden said to business leaders during the summit.