News Analysis Through investment, trade, and diplomatic coercion, the Chinese regime is steadily expanding its influence into America’s backyard—Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became one step closer to isolating Taiwan when Nicaragua recently announced that it switched diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. This leaves Taiwan with only 14 allied nations. Its strongest ally, of course, is the United States. The CCP seeks to displace the United States as the world leader even in its own backyard, in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Currently, China leads in trade with Africa and parts of Asia. China is still lagging behind the United States in the Americas, but the gap is steadily closing. In 2009, Chinese investment only accounted for 4 percent of new projects in Latin America. By 2019, the number had increased to 6.8 percent. The United States, by contrast, accounts for about 22 …