{"id":62216,"date":"2025-10-24T13:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T17:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=62216"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:50:07","slug":"heine-on-why-ecuador-turned-to-china-not-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2025\/10\/24\/heine-on-why-ecuador-turned-to-china-not-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Heine on Why Ecuador Turned to China, Not the U.S"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"373\" data-end=\"655\">Ambassador Jorge Heine&#8217;s article was published by Responsible Statecraft on September 4, 2025. <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/rubio-trip-mexico-ecuador\/\">Check out the full article here.<\/a><br \/>\n<span class=\"\" data-state=\"closed\"><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49803\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49803\" style=\"width: 445px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/pardeeschool\/files\/2021\/07\/Jorge_Heine-533x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"435\" height=\"245\" class=\" wp-image-49803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/files\/2021\/07\/Jorge_Heine-533x300.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/files\/2021\/07\/Jorge_Heine-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/files\/2021\/07\/Jorge_Heine.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amb. Jorge Heine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-start=\"657\" data-end=\"1030\">Throughout the article, Heine highlights Ecuador&#8217;s heavy reliance on China \u2014\u00a0 the country\u2019s top source of foreign direct investment in 2024. With Ecuador facing large foreign-debt burdens, oil-price swings, and the need for hard currency, Chinese financing, trade, and infrastructure deals have filled a critical gap. By contrast, U.S. support has been limited and conditional. For example, a major U.S. loan required Ecuador to exclude Chinese telecom technology and privatize assets\u2014terms that sparked controversy. Meanwhile, Ecuador proceeded to sign a free-trade agreement with China in May 2024 after Washington declined a similar deal.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1435\" data-end=\"1729\">Heine argues that U.S. efforts to block Chinese influence in Latin America have largely failed. China-Latin America trade hit a record $518 billion in 2024, and Chinese investment continues to expand\u2014especially in technologies and green industries. For Ecuador, the choice to deepen ties with China reflects strategic realism: it needs reliable trade and investment now. For the U.S., the key question is not just how to counter China, but how to offer credible alternatives.<\/p>\n<p><span>A former research professor at the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/\"><span>\u00a0<\/span><span>Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies<\/span><\/a><span>, Jorge Heine is a diplomat, international relations scholar, and lawyer. He has served as an ambassador of Chile to China, India, and South Africa. Heine has written over fifteen books, including<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politybooks.com\/bookdetail?book_slug=the-non-aligned-world-striking-out-in-an-era-of-great-power-competition--9781509564347\"><span>\u00a0<\/span><i><span>The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition<\/span><\/i><\/a><span>\u00a0(2025), which provides insights on how the Global South can navigate the changing diplomatic landscape amid the U.S.-China rivalry.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambassador Jorge Heine&#8217;s article was published by Responsible Statecraft on September 4, 2025. Check out the full article here. Throughout the article, Heine highlights Ecuador&#8217;s heavy reliance on China \u2014\u00a0 the country\u2019s top source of foreign direct investment in 2024. With Ecuador facing large foreign-debt burdens, oil-price swings, and the need for hard currency, Chinese&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25562,"featured_media":49803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8410],"tags":[12141,1688,13115,8490,13116,9103,8593,11374,1810,9809,8639,9527],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62449,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62216\/revisions\/62449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}