Recent Wargame By The PRC Reveals Extensive Dual-Use Infrastructure Throughout Latin America

R. Evan Ellis’s article at The Diplomat, “China’s Military Is Planning for Combat in Latin America,” provides an analysis of a recent PLA wargame that offers rare visibility into how Beijing envisions Latin America as an active theater in a future conflict with the United States.

The exercise, broadcast by Chinese state media, simulated PLA operations around Cuba, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico, confirming that China’s extensive dual-use infrastructure across Latin America is not merely commercial opportunism but part of deliberate contingency planning. Ellis highlights how facilities such as Argentina’s PLA-operated space radar, COSCO’s control of Peru’s Chancay port, Chinese electronic intelligence sites in Cuba, and commercial shipping networks could enable intelligence collection, naval resupply, and potentially even special operations within striking distance of U.S. territory during an Indo-Pacific conflict.

China does not require formal basing agreements or military alliances to threaten U.S. access and power projection—economic leverage, port control, and telecommunications infrastructure may suffice to turn the Western Hemisphere into a contested rear area precisely when American forces are most committed elsewhere.

For defense planners and strategists, the wargame underscores a critical vulnerability: while U.S. attention focuses on Indo-Pacific deterrence, the logistics and mobilization corridors that would sustain any major conflict (e.g., the Panama Canal, Caribbean sea lanes, and Gulf Coast installations) are increasingly exposed to disruption by an adversary that has spent two decades building influence without firing a shot.

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