Top U.S. general: ‘We’ve got to do better’ at countering China, Russia in America’s own neighborhood

ASPEN, Colorado — U.S. officials and private companies have “to do better” at engaging allies across Central and South America to counter aggressive Chinese and Russian moves in the region, such as Moscow’s recent docking of warships in Cuba and Beijing’s establishment of secretive space facilities in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.

That was the core message Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, delivered at the annual Aspen Security Forum that brought dozens of current and former high-level officials together with tech and defense industry executives in the Rocky Mountains last week.

In remarks largely overshadowed by the appearance in Aspen of more prominent U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and by panels on the Mideast and Ukraine wars, Gen. Richardson sought to draw attention to great power competition playing out in America’s own neighborhood.

“This hemisphere is inextricably linked to the security of our own homeland,” she said, warning that lacking U.S. diplomatic presence is undermining efforts to pull South and Central American democracies away from the potentially dangerous lure of Chinese and Russian partnerships.

“I’ve met with at least two-thirds of the presidents in my region, but they don’t see what Team U.S.A. is bringing to their countries,” Gen. Richardson said.

“We don’t have enough visitors or high level visits,” she said, reflecting that while American ambassadors are her “No. 1 teammate” for coordinating security cooperation with regional democracies, several have had their confirmations delayed for months — years even — by divisive Washington politics.

“On my strategic countries of Colombia, Brazil and Chile, we’re going on two years now without a U.S. ambassador,” Gen. Richardson said. “It was three years in Chile. It was three years in Brazil, five years in Panama — five years.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle,” she said. “We’ve just got to do better. When we talk about Team USA, we can’t be blocking our own field goals.”

“The presidents of countries look at that as that we’re ignoring them when we can’t get our number one diplomat — their primary liaison to the United States — in the seat,” she added. “We’ve got to do better than that.”

Countering Belt and Road

Gen. Richardson suggested the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is outcompeting the U.S. in the region, as Washington struggles to capitalize on its own gains with key Central and South American partners.

“Even though [U.S.] foreign direct investment … actually is really high, [regional leaders] don’t see it. All they see are the Chinese cranes and all the development, Belt and Road Initiative projects,” said Gen. Richardson. She noted that 22 of the 31 countries in the region have signed on the CCP’s signature foreign development program.

“These projects are in the billions of dollars, not in the millions, they are in the billions. They’re big time projects,” she said. “Now, [the Chinese] don’t do the projects well each and every time. But they’re projects nonetheless.”

“Why do I worry about the Chinese investment with the Belt and Road initiative?” Gen. Richardson said. “If it’s for doing good in the hemisphere, then I’m all for it. But it makes me a little suspicious when it’s in the critical infrastructure … deep water ports, 5G, cybersecurity, energy, space … I worry about the dual use nature of that.”

“These are state-owned enterprises by a communist government and I’m worried about the flipping of that to a military application very quickly if something were to happen, maybe in the Indo-Pacom region,” she said.

Gen. Richardson, who assumed control of Southern Command in 2021, has previously sounded the alarm on the potential militarization of China’s activities in the hemisphere. She alerted the House Armed Services Committee last year that at least 11 China-linked space facilities have been established in the region, providing Beijing “with space tracking and surveillance capabilities.”

“This includes a joint space monitoring facility in Chile and a deep space station in Argentina that is managed by an agency subordinate to the People’s Liberation Army,” she said in a written statement to lawmakers.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies subsequently published a commentary highlighting her concerns and emphasizing “strategic implications” associated with the “inherent dual-use nature of China’s growing network of space ground control sites in South America.

The commentary warned that the stations could provide Beijing with “critical support for the potential deployment and guidance of hypersonic missiles over the Western Hemisphere, with the United States a likely target.”

For her part, Gen. Richardson drew the ire of Chinese officials in April by visiting Argentina, whose pro-U.S. president, Javier Milei, has expressed skepticism about Beijing’s space-related partnership with his country.

Following a meeting between Gen. Richardson and Mr. Milei, the CCP-controlled Global Times newspaper reported that Chinese officials were “deeply shocked and angered” by the general’s warnings about the potential dual-use capabilities of China’s operations.

The publication cited a statement by the Chinese Embassy in Argentina that called the general’s warnings “absurd,” and claimed Beijing’s space-related activities in the country have no special purposes other than civilian use.

That back-and-forth did not come up during a public question-and-answer session with Gen. Richardson in Aspen.

A ‘Marshal Plan for the region’

Gen. Richardson said “transnational criminal organizations” are engaged in everything from drug and human trafficking to illegal mining, logging and fishing in the southern stretches of the Western Hemisphere — activities that fuel massive international money laundering operations, which benefit Chinese and Russian activities.

“We’re not going to interdict our way out of this problem,” she said, adding that the illicit economic activity “stirs up the insecurity and instability in these countries to allow Chinese and Russian strategic competitors to get in there and offer the Belt and Road Initiative, offer cash.”

Gen. Richardson said the U.S. presence in the region is vibrant and multifaceted, but that Washington is dropping the ball when it comes to capitalizing on its efforts.

She noted that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington recently sailed around the hemisphere. She also emphasized recent collaboration between Southern Command and the Commerce Department on efforts to expand microchip “supply chain” partnerships under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The legislation delivered funding for Panama, Costa Rica and several other Latin American nations to assemble, test and package semiconductors.

But, she said, Washington should be doing more, asserting that “we need a Marshall Plan for the region.”

She noted the Biden administration’s promotion of the American Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), and said there are “big projects that are rolling out as a result,” in coordination with the Inter American Development Bank and the Developmental Finance Corporation.

“But how are we competing — Team USA, Team Democracy?” she asked.

“I don’t think we’re branding Team USA as we should. It’s got to be better. We’ve got to be bragging about what U.S. quality investment does. The Development Finance Corporation, DFC, that was created by Congress, I think, is operating on all eight cylinders now, and this is a mechanism for getting investment into the region very, very quickly, along with the APEP.”

With regard to Russia, she said U.S. vessels “shadowed” the Russian fleet that recently made a port call in Havana. But, she warned, Russia is also sending military hardware to its partners in the region, and carrying out regular “high-level” diplomatic visits to countries like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

“What’s our counter punch?” she asked. “Who are we bringing into the region after those visits?

“I think that we can do better,” Gen. Richardson said.