China Hosts Latin America Leaders Amid US Regional Focus

The U.S.-China relationship has dramatically shifted from decades of engagement to heightened competition and strategic recalibration amid growing geopolitical tensions. Scholar David Shambaugh explores this evolution in American policy from engagement to competition, highlighting the increasing challenges and disintegration of prior cooperation. Germany's economic ties with China illustrate a complex dynamic where deep trade interdependence coexists with rising competition, especially in key industrial sectors, reflecting broader global shifts and vulnerabilities for the EU. China's expanding influence in Latin America, demonstrated by President Xi Jinping's meetings with regional leaders like Brazil's Lula da Silva, underscores China's efforts to counterbalance U.S. geopolitical dominance and fortify trade partnerships in the region. Meanwhile, despite some optimistic signs such as a partial tariff pause, the underlying trajectory points toward an intensifying U.S.-China conflict, rooted in decades of ideological and military rivalry dating back to the Chinese socialist revolution in 1949. This long-standing antagonism continues to shape current policies and military postures across the Indo-Pacific, indicating that the U.S.-China rivalry remains a defining feature of global geopolitics.