The Global Security Initiative Comes to LAC

This chapter examines how China&s;s Global Security Initiative (GSI) has expanded Beijing&s;s security footprint across the Americas, reframing police cooperation, arms sales, and surveillance technology under a broader narrative of “indivisible security” and non-interference. It situates the GSI within earlier patterns of Chinese military diplomacy – arms salesto Venezuela and Bolivia, officer exchanges, peacekeeping deployments in Haiti, and growing engagement with regional defense institutions – while showing how the post-2022 GSI shifts emphasis toward internal security, law enforcement training, public safety infrastructure, and “Safe City” surveillance systems. The chapter documents a dense web of activities that cause complex interdependence, but also potential unequal dependencies: equipment donations, armored vehicle sales, police academies, facial recognition platforms, port calls by PLA Navy hospital ships, intelligence presence in Cuba, and the emergence of Chinese private security firms and overseas police stations. While many Latin American governments welcome these initiatives as realist, pragmatic responses to soaring crime and fiscal constraints, US and European analysts warn of dual-use risks, intelligence collection, and support for illiberal governance. Ultimately, the chapter argues that China&s;s security engagement succeeds not through overt military basing, but through incremental, needs-driven partnerships that embed Beijing within the region&s;s domestic security architecture.