How Beijing’s billions won over Peru


A view of containers at the new Chinese-operated cargo port at Chancay, north of Lima, Peru. — Sara Wayra/The New York Times

PERU’s ambassador in Washington, Luis Miguel Castilla, received a stern phone call in 2015 from the State Department, after US officials learned that a Chinese firm would finance a sprawling new Pacific Coast port project.

Why, they asked, was Peru handing Beijing a strategic foothold in South America?

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