China’s influence threatens Florida through Caribbean expansion


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Experts are sounding the alarm about China’s growing influence campaigns in Florida, a state that has traditionally played a pivotal role in presidential elections. Florida’s strategic location and proximity to Latin America and the Caribbean have made it an attractive target for Chinese efforts to sway public opinion and potentially interfere in U.S. electoral processes.

Vincent Wang, the Dean at Adelphi University, highlights the remarkable gains China has made in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years, a region once considered firmly within the United States’ sphere of influence. “China is strategically focused on the state of Florida because of its importance to the region and to U.S. national politics,” Wang said. “China is interested in getting involved in U.S. electoral politics. I would say that the threat posed by China today is more serious than the threat posed by the Soviet Union during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.”

While China denies any “geopolitical calculations” behind its influence campaigns in the region, a House Foreign Affairs Committee report reveals that the country has invested over $10 billion in six Caribbean countries between 2005 and 2022. A Chinese Embassy spokesperson in Washington, D.C., claimed, “Cooperation between China and LAC countries has won popular support because it respects the will of the people, meets the needs of regional countries, and provides reliable options and broad prospects for the revitalization of the region. We take no interest in interfering in the internal affairs of any countries, including the elections in the U.S.”

However, some experts argue that the Trump administration’s tariff policies and diminishing foreign aid have created an opportunity for China to expand its influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. “Under the Trump administration, the United States is rapidly yielding its already declining hegemony in Latin America to China,” said Deborah Norden, a political science professor at Whittier College. “The threat of tariffs drives Latin American countries to expand economic integration with more eager partners, at the same time that the obliteration of U.S. foreign aid erases decades of cultivating loyalty in the region.”

Norden added, “In this context, China’s rising role, especially in the Caribbean, may put Florida at risk in that its neighbors can no longer be expected to ally with the United States in an international conflict, particularly one between the U.S. and China. The vulnerability of U.S. elections to both money and external propaganda also creates the possibility that China could, if it found it in its interest, choose to try to toss some coins on the scale of American elections in Florida or elsewhere.”

Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, has been proactive in addressing the potential threat of Chinese influence in the state, taking measures to decouple Florida’s public and private enterprises from the Chinese Communist Party’s reach. A DeSantis spokesperson stated, “Gov. DeSantis has prioritized the eradication of the Chinese Communist Party’s interference in Florida. Under Gov. DeSantis’ leadership, Florida delivered the strongest posturing in the nation to confront economic, strategic, and security threat — the Chinese Communist Party.”

Despite Florida’s efforts, John Lee from the Hudson Institute warns of a “threefold” threat from China in “America’s backyard.” “First, increased economic, financial, and technological dependency on China offers Beijing opportunities to exert influence in the geopolitical decisions and even domestic politics of smaller states,” Lee explained. “Second, China seeks to redefine and change the rules and standards used by nations to conduct commerce and trade in its favor. Third, Chinese development and operation of ports in foreign countries have been used by Beijing to gather significant military and economic intelligence for the purposes of aiding China in its geopolitical rivalry with the U.S.”

 

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