China's Xi arrives in Lima for APEC, to open Pacific megaport

By Eduardo Baptista and Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Lima on Thursday, kicking off a week-long diplomatic blitz in Latin America by inaugurating the massive Chancay deep-water port, one of Beijing's most ambitious infrastructure investments in Latin America.

Xi will participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima and then the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week. Xi will also conduct state visits to Peru and Brazil, both major sources of metal ores, soybeans, and other commodities that sustain key Chinese industries like electric vehicles, pork, as well as guaranteeing food security for the country's population of 1.4 billion.

Xi's first order of business in Lima is to headline an inauguration ceremony for the Chancay port, along with Peru's President Dina Boluarte. The China-controlled megaport, built by Cosco Shipping Ports and located on Peru's Pacific coast, has already drawn $1.3 billion in Chinese investment, with billions more expected as Beijing and Lima look to turn Chancay into a major shipping hub between Asia and South America.

"We need to jointly build and manage well the Chancay port, make 'from Chancay to Shanghai' truly become a prosperous path to promoting the joint development of China-Peru, and China- Latin America," Xi wrote in an opinion article published on Thursday in the official daily El Peruano.

The inauguration of the port comes at a time when Beijing is looking to further tap into resource-rich Latin American region, amid trade tensions with Europe and concerns about future tariffs from the incoming Trump administration.

Chancay, China's largest investment in a Latin American port, has raised alarm bells in Washington. General Laura Richardson, former U.S. Southern Command chief, warned earlier this month before retiring that Chancay could be used by the Chinese military's navy and for intelligence-gathering.

U.S. anxieties about Chancay reflect a broader, decades-long shift in a region known as Washington's backyard that has seen China overtake the United States to become the largest trading partner of countries like Peru.

China's state-backed Global Times wrote in an editorial published on Monday that the port was a "bridge for practical cooperation between China and Latin America and is by no means a tool for geopolitical competition", calling U.S. accusations of the port's potential military use "smears".

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Marco Aquino in Lima, additional reporting by Zhang Yukun in Beijing; Editing by Alistair Bell)