Strategic competition between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to attract the international community’s attention. The PRC seeks to expand its influence in the Global South, especially in South America, by increasing its critical mineral mining industry in the region. Throughout this report, we analyze data on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private Chinese mineral companies’ investments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through a World Systems Theory (WST) and state-corporate criminological lens while utilizing Geospatial Information Systems (i.e., ArcGIS software) to geo-locate mining investment hotspots. In addition, this report analyzes how these minerals modernize the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military weaponry and vehicles.
