Margaret Myers, director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue: “China’s increasingly extensive engagement with Latin American militaries should be understood within the context of a much larger and even more expansive public diplomacy initiative, involving what I’ve termed a ‘tangled web of overlapping interactions and a kaleidoscopic cast of characters.’ It is also a critical feature of the Belt and Road Initiative, which though often considered to be an infrastructure platform, is, in actuality, dedicated to building connectivity in many forms, including through people-to-people ties. China’s more than 200 military visits, the China-CELAC High-Level Defense Forum, educational exchanges between military academies, Chinese tech company engagement with military institutions and satellite and other cooperation are all part of an overall proliferation of diplomatic, commercial and education activities, which feature across really all economic sectors, in multiple areas of policy interest and in the security space, as noted…”