Ambassador Jorge Heine, former Chilean diplomat to China and professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies, was interviewed by NCS for a phase titled, How Trump’s Venezuela strike complicates China’s Latin America technique that was printed on January 23, 2026. Heine was requested to contextualize and remark on Latin America’s relationship to it’s largest funding and enterprise accomplice, China, amidst the current elimination of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the United States.
As Latin American’s relationship to China has deepened in current many years, so too has the United States’ anxiousness due to its world competitors with the Asian nation. Heine voiced his disagreement of the present rhetoric that “China’s presence in Latin America is often described as some sort of grand scheme to take over the region.”
Since the enactment of the Belt and Road Initiative initiative in 2013, China has funded much-needed infrastructure in addition to enhanced world commerce, connectivity, and financial progress in Latin American nations. A supporter of this initiative throughout his time in China, Heine had this to say, “This is a partnership that has evolved over time. It has grown organically. There are minuses, I fully agree on that, but if we draw a balance, I would say the pluses outweigh the minuses.”
While the United States has expressed concern over this dependency on China, a separation from Latin America would now be not possible. Heine additionally famous that the United States has not provided a helpful counter argument to what China has to supply.
The notion that you ought to be caught in that infrastructure deficit and never do something about it, as a result of United States doesn’t like Chinese firms to assist treatment it, is one thing that doesn’t go down effectively with Latin American governments. Particularly since the US isn’t saying ‘I will build the port, I will building the railway, I will build the bridge.’
Going ahead, whereas the elimination of Maduro has actually made waves with Venezuelan management, Heine’s closing remarks asserted that China-Latin America partnerships haven’t been deterred. “The Chinese message has been that China is a partner that offers stability and predictability. In diplomacy, this is very important. You could say that the United States today is not exactly a prime example of stability”
The full interview may be watched here.
A former analysis professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Jorge Heine is a diplomat, worldwide relations scholar, and lawyer. He is presently a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. He has served as an envoy of Chile to China, India, and South Africa. Heine has written over fifteen books, together with The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition (2025), which supplies insights on how the Global South can navigate the altering diplomatic panorama amid the U.S.-China rivalry.