House lawmakers focus on ‘outcompeting China’ in bipartisan visit to Guyana

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure development plan that has global security hawks concerned about Beijing’s brazen efforts to grow its influence abroad.

Smith said his congressional delegation helped present the U.S. as a “much-needed alternative” to China.

“Our delegation’s meetings have shown how U.S. bilateral relationships-in the region benefit American workers and provide a much-needed alternative to countries that might otherwise orient their economies toward China.

“An energy boom in Guyana can help American workers while also benefiting the people of Guyana and their economy,” the Republican lawmaker said.

Along with meetings with the Guyanese president, vice president and their cabinet, the lawmakers also spoke with members of the country’s opposition party and U.S. Marines stationed in the capital city of Georgetown.

Smith raised worries about China’s encroaching influence in South America earlier this week after the Ways and Means Committee’s stop in Ecuador.

“We must use every tool at our disposal, including trade, to counter China’s influence in Latin America, and I shared my concerns with President Lasso about Ecuador’s expanding trade ties with China,” the congressman said.

They had kicked off the trip with a visit to Mexico, where Smith said they discussed the Central American country’s obligations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement as well as their disapproval of the crisis at the southern border.