The Manipulation of the Dragon: Strategic Chinese Corruption in Latin America

William Acosta, CEO of Equalizer Investigations for FinGurú

Introduction

The Chinese penetration in Latin America manifests itself beyond trade agreements and public investment. State-owned companies, intermediaries, and covert operators have formed genuine networks of influence that use systematic bribery as their main tool. Paraguay is the epicenter of this phenomenon due to its geopolitical stance towards Taiwan, but the Chinese strategy has impacted the entire region, from the Brazilian Amazon to the Ecuadorian Andes, using complex financial architectures, political contacts, and judicial corruption practices that undermine Latin American sovereignty (Lee, Leong & Lee, 2025; Forensic Risk, 2023)

Each case involves not only economic operations but also human decisions, institutional betrayals, and concrete effects on entire societies. This report exposes, with names and figures, how China has perfected the use of intermediaries from its business community to buy state favors and reshape local political dynamics. The inclusion of international examples allows for scaling the threat and designing regional strategies to contain it.

Chinese Modus Operandi in Paraguay and Latin America

China articulates its strategy transversally, relying on a network of Chinese citizens residing in the region, local associations, and in key cases executives from state conglomerates. Through these actors, China channels facilitation payments, bribes, and gifts employing shell companies, international transfers, and opaque contracts linked to major public and energy works.

The Role of Chinese Intelligence, Brain and Operational Support

Perhaps one of the least visible but most decisive elements of this dynamic is the role played by Chinese intelligence as the true architect of strategic expansion. Unlike other countries, the Chinese intelligence apparatus is not limited to observation: it plans, coordinates, and accompanies every stage of the penetration and influence process.

Before initiating any significant incursion, such as the pursuit of key contracts or diplomatic alliances, Chinese intelligence deploys an exhaustive mapping of relevant actors in the target country. They analyze political vulnerabilities, detect "entry points" in key sectors, and evaluate potential allies or intermediaries who can facilitate the execution of plans (Andrés Bello Foundation, 2025)

Intelligence action is felt both officially, in embassies, commercial attaches, and diplomatic missions, and underground: from seemingly independent entrepreneurs to leaders of local Chinese associations, also involving consultants and operators with privileged access to governmental information. It is no coincidence that where major infrastructure contracts or secret “negotiation” processes with China appear, well-connected names and chains of favors or threats arise that respond to greater interests (Forensic Risk, 2023)

These agents act as bridges, supervising and training local facilitators on how to deploy discreet payments, manipulate bids, protect documentation, or even manage disinformation campaigns when social or political resistance becomes too visible (Lee, Leong & Lee, 2025). Their role also includes creating gray areas where responsibility is diffuse, protecting the Chinese state from direct accusations while maximizing its capacity to exert pressure on weak states.

The hierarchical structure of China allows results collected on the ground to be quickly transmitted to higher decision-making levels, whether in state-owned enterprises or party bodies, facilitating immediate adaptation of tactics as political or media conditions in the target country change (Andrés Bello Foundation, 2025)

This strategic deployment, besides being sophisticated, is patient and culturally informed. Chinese intelligence studies local histories, loyalty systems, and even patterns of internal conflict, knowing how to exploit historical cracks or specific needs such as health crises, economic recessions, or controversial electoral processes. Thus, the invisible hand of intelligence is capable of pulling strings in the daily life of Asunción, Quito, Caracas, or Brasília, often without the public or even local authorities understanding the dimension and sophistication of the play (Expediente Público, 2023)

Chronology and Notable Examples of Chinese Corruption in Paraguay and Latin America

In 2014, in Paraguay, prosecutor Villalba received bribes in the form of luxury vehicles and cash to shelve fraud cases, demonstrating the vulnerability of the judicial system to organized corruption (GAN Integrity, 2020)

In 2016, in Brazil, the Petrobras scandal involved bribes of over US$30 million delivered by Sinopec executives, such as Zhang Jianhua, to Brazilian intermediaries (El País, 2016)

In 2017, in Bolivia, executives from CHEC, especially Liu Xinhua, made payments of approximately US$2.7 million in bribes to secure road works concessions, channeling funds through intermediaries (Forensic Risk, 2023)

In 2018, in Venezuela, CAMC Engineering channeled over US$100 million in bribes to the Ministry of Agriculture, involving Zhang Chunyan and Minister Wilmar Castro Soteldo (Forensic Risk, 2023)

In 2021, in Paraguay, the case of Chinese supplies emerged, related to fraudulently imported medical materials; the operation involved payments to officials (ABC Color, 2021)

In 2022, in Ecuador, in the Sinohydro Coca Codo Sinclair case, US$76.4 million was transferred to political intermediaries linked to then-President Lenín Moreno (Andrés Bello Foundation, 2025)

In 2023, in Paraguay, entrepreneurs Shi Dizi and Lin Fan channeled payments of up to US$20,000 for residences and to influence presidential campaigns, also related to industrial projects linked to the policy towards Taiwan (Lee, Leong & Lee, 2025; LPO, 2025)

In 2023, in Paraguay, the Ministry of Migration expelled Chinese citizens Jinxing Zhuang and Xiwu Yan for irregular entry in the Chaco, with alleged improper payments to officials (National Migration Directorate, 2025)

Regional Strategic Analysis

The Chinese action in Latin America reveals meticulous planning, taking advantage of institutional control gaps and adapting its mechanisms to multiple bureaucratic and political systems. The use of intelligence allows China to anticipate threats, control damage, and double efforts in those countries where it encounters resistance. This network operates with an efficiency that is only possible due to the constant interconnection between diplomatic, business, and clandestine levels.

Conclusion

Perhaps the greatest lesson from this tour through the intricacies of corruption linked to Chinese networks in Paraguay and Latin America is recognizing that the phenomenon transcends numbers and headlines: we are talking about concrete stories, of human trajectories often truncated by the weight of foreign interests, of windows of opportunity closed for entire communities simply because someone, in some anonymous office, succumbed to the temptation of a hefty briefcase. In each country exhibited here, in each name and in each figure, a silent but devastating dynamic beats, where the global filters into the local not only with money but with a logic that slowly erodes the social fabric and the rules of the democratic game.

It is not easy to describe the real impact of these cases when in any town in Paraguay, Ecuador, or Bolivia someone sees how a promised public work remains unfinished, or how a hospital never finishes being equipped because those funds vanished into offshore accounts. These are realities that rarely make it into technical reports, but that sear the trust, hope, and capacity to dream of entire generations. When a businessman like Shi Dizi or a senior executive like Zhang Jianhua decides to pay for a shortcut, the consequence is not just a transnational scandal, but the perpetuation of a circle of exclusion and inequality that, unfortunately, remains the daily bread in many corners of Latin America (Lee, Leong & Lee, 2025; Forensic Risk, 2023)

During the evaluation of the information to write this article, it is hard not to be indignant when confirming that the sophistication of the mechanisms, far from being simple malpractice, responds to a long-thought strategy that recognizes structural weaknesses and exploits them with precision. Where justice is slow, where a functionary earns little or fears losing their position, where oversight seems a distant word. And yet, amid so much disappointment, glimmers of civic dignity also emerge: prosecutors who resist shelving files, journalists who risk everything to shed light on dark pacts, workers who denounce even knowing that their future is at stake.

Suspicion and narration of these networks of corruption is not an exercise of conspiracy theories nor a game of global culprits; it is, on the contrary, a generational responsibility. Every time a citizen chooses not to look away, every time a judge issues a fair ruling despite the threats, a difference is made. The fight against this form of foreign intervention so polished in its forms, so bold in its methods requires more than legal reforms or audits. It needs an ethical reinvention, a collective courage to protect what still belongs to us and cannot be bought or sold.

In some way, this conclusion is deliberately open-ended, like the door that never closes for those who continue to bet on a less vulnerable, less resigned Latin America. Hopefully, this report serves, besides as a strategic and technical input, as an invitation to not lose the capacity for astonishment nor the courage to face what harms us, be it powerful, foreign, or internal. It is there, in that ultimate edge between the private and the public, between the ethical and the pragmatic, where the fate of our democracies and the real, concrete possibility of building societies immune to the seduction of bribery and impunity is at stake. Because dignity, that which does not appear in statistics or bank transfers, is the true beginning and end of politics and public life.

References

Lee, L., Leong, J., & Lee, A. (2025). Al Jazeera investigation into alleged gifts and bribes to Paraguayan politicians by businessman linked to China. ABC Color.https://www.abc.com.py/politica/2025/09/27/investigacion-de-al-jazeera-habla-de-supuestos-regalos-y-sobornos-a-politicos-paraguayos-por-empresario-vinculado-a-china

Forensic Risk. (2023). Chinese Investment In Latin America Raises Corruption Risks.https://www.forensicrisk.com/news-and-insights/chinese-investment-in-latin-america-raises-corruption-risks

  Andrés Bello Foundation. (2025). Ecuador's prosecutor accuses Lenín Moreno of bribery in contract with Chinese company.https://fundacionandresbello.org/noticias/ecuador-%F0%9F%87%AA%F0%9F%87%A8/fiscalia-de-ecuador-acusa-a-lenin-moreno-de-sobornos-en-contrato-con-empresa-china/

  El País. (2016). Corruption in Petrobras reaches Chinese executives from Sinopec.https://elpais.com/internacional/2016/03/09/actualidad/1457522477_500716.html

LPO. (2025). A Chinese intermediary claimed to have paid bribes to Peña and Efraín.https://www.lapoliticaonline.com/amp/327993-un-supuesto-intermediario-de-china-dijo-haberles-pagado-coimas-a-pena-y-efrain-durante-la-campana-de-2023/

GAN Integrity. (2020). Paraguay country risk report.https://www.ganintegrity.com/country-profiles/paraguay/

ABC Color. (2021). One year after the case of Chinese supplies, the attempted fraud remains unpunished.https://www.abc.com.py/nacionales/2021/04/18/a-un-ano-del-caso-de-los-insumos-chinos-intento-de-estafa-sigue-impune/

National Migration Directorate. (2025). The expulsion of Chinese citizens who irregularly entered the Chaco has been realized.

Public File. (2023). China's Script in the World: Corruption, Economic and Political Influence. https://www.expedienteabierto.org/el-guion-de-china-en-el-mundo-corrupcion-influencia-economica-y-politica/

About the Author:

William L. Acosta graduated Magna Cum Laude from PWU and Alliance University. He is a retired police officer from New York City, as well as the founder and CEO of Equalizer Private Investigations & Security Services Inc., a licensed agency in New York and Florida, with international reach.

Since 1999, he has led investigations in narcotics cases, homicides, and missing persons, in addition to participating in criminal defense at both the state and federal levels.

Specializing in international and multijurisdictional cases, he has coordinated operations in North America, Europe, and Latin America.