El Salvador’s new $500 million stadium with a 50,000-seat capacity, under construction and financed by China — a gift from Beijing — is expected to be completed by mid-2027.
The large-scale construction that will rise in Antiguo Cuscatlán, is perhaps one of the latest examples of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) gift diplomacy or charm offensive in Central American nations.
The new stadium is part of a larger infrastructure project the CCP promised to “gift” El Salvador following the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2018. Yet far from being a simple act of generosity, these types of megaprojects are part of Beijing’s strategy to gain political and economic influence in Latin America through “free” infrastructures that create dependency.
“The logic behind this type of ‘non-reimbursable’ cooperation is that the beneficiary countries owe favors to the Chinese regime,” Eduardo Escobar, executive director of Acción Ciudadana, an organization that promotes transparency and accountability in El Salvador, told Diálogo. “This soft power approach, at the Latin American level, seeks to contribute to the development of countries through public works, with the intention of obtaining some subsequent benefit for China.”
The stadium will strengthen national sports, encourage the practice of new disciplines, and build a stronger sports culture, the official daily Diario El Salvador, reported. The project, however, mirrors a systematic approach by China, which involves developing similar infrastructure in other countries of the region, using them as instruments for geopolitical projection and influence in territories of strategic interests.
“This type of investment is likely when China has an interest in maintaining good relations with a country but does not foresee the emergence of significant economic or strategic complementarities,” Henry Ziemer, associate researcher at the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Diálogo. “El Salvador is a good example of this: Lacking significant natural resources that China might want, it focuses more on donations such as the soccer stadium and the national library, which improve public perception but are of little relevance to Beijing.”
Another controversial Chinese company
The construction of El Salvador’s new stadium, a project that involves China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), has raised red flags as the company has a history of fraud, labor violations, and environmental abuses documented in the region. For instance, China Construction America (CCA), a subsidiary of CSCEC, was found guilty of fraud and breach of its investment agreement with BML Properties Ltd. in the failed Baha Mar project in the Bahamas, U.S. media outlet National Law Review reported.
A New York court found that CCA diverted funds from subcontractors, withdrew them, and authorized delays, which directly contributed to the collapse and bankruptcy of the project in 2015. Despite an appeal by CCA, the court upheld its decision and awarded BML $1.6 billion in damages, according to Eyewitness News Bahamas.
CSCEC was also accused of multiple violations in a $230 million infrastructure project in Bolivia, following an investigation by the World Bank, daily South China Morning Post reported. The road project, awarded in 2017 by the Bolivian Highway Administration to CSCEC, sought to improve a public road and benefit 125,000 residents. But the Chinese company manipulated locals into blindly signing unfavorable land concession contracts, paying prices well below market value, the newspaper reported.
In addition, the company was accused of building housing as compensation that was unfinished and uninhabitable, ignoring the climatic characteristics of the region, U.K.-based non-profit organization Business and Human Rights Resource Centre indicated. CSCEC is also accused of polluting water sources essential to nearby communities and of violating labor laws, including wage delays, non-payment of insurance, and lack of adequate protective equipment for workers, it added.
The “gift” strategy
Beijing’s agenda goes beyond the “win-win” rhetoric it promotes in its agreements. Its tactic of “non-repayable cooperation” is often activated when a country breaks ties with Taiwan, think tank Expediente Público indicated in its report, Case Study: China’s Influence in Costa Rica, which also documents that, since the mid-1960s, similar infrastructures have been built in the Caribbean and the South Pacific.
In 2007, Costa Rica became the first Central American country to break ties with Taiwan and establish relations with Beijing. In exchange, China built the San José National Stadium, valued at $100 million. This diplomatic shift was key for Beijing, which sought to weaken Taiwan’s international recognition and strengthen its presence in the region. The new relationship not only brought a wave of CCP gifts, but also an increase in illicit activities linked to bilateral trade.
“Members of the Chinese Costa Rican community operate a number of private high-stakes casinos, as well as cryptocurrency operations, both of which are used in part for money laundering […]. Costan Rican based Chinese criminal organizations are also heavily involved to some extent in the purchase and sale of drugs transiting the country,” Dr. Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, said in a report. “Unfortunately, the ability of Costa Rican authorities to combat Chinese organized crime […] is limited, since those authorities often have little capabilities to penetrate Costa Rican Chinese communities, because they are socially relatively closed to outsiders.”
China also seeks to influence the Caribbean through strategic investments that combine critical infrastructure with high-impact symbolic projects. Under its Belt and Road Initiative, it has financed everything from ports and power grids to hospitals and stadiums, in a bid to secure a presence in key sectors, as well as proximity to natural resources, as in the cases of Guyana and Suriname, according to political magazine Político. In Jamaica, this pattern was evident in projects such as the Trelawny Stadium, built at a cost of more than $30 million, and the expansion of the University of the Eastern Indies Hospital, with an investment of $511 million.
The long-term implications of these gestures, which echo China’s “palace diplomacy” in Africa, remains unclear, as details surrounding the CCP’s investment deals across Latin America are vague and obscure.
“The ambiguity means that some packages can simultaneously be interpreted as loans, investment, and aid,” Bhaso Ndzendze, associate professor of politics and international relations at the University of Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera. “These are of course different things and mean different implications… we need information systems to enable transparency so that we can be able to conduct a cost-benefit analysis as citizens and actors outside of government.”
