Trump has squeezed China in Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. Is Nicaragua next?

US President Donald Trump’s drive to reassert US supremacy in Latin America has already squeezed China’s interests in Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. Now, Nicaragua could be shaping up as the next economic battleground between the two powers, a scholar has warned.

The American leader has yet to target Nicaragua since returning to office, but that could change if China revives an ambitious project to build a canal cutting across the country to connect the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, said Zhang Junhua, a senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies, in a position paper.

The waterway has been in limbo for years, but Trump’s assertive foreign policy – which has seen him pressure a string of Latin American governments in recent months – could push Beijing to upsize its role in the project, Zhang suggested in the paper published on Thursday.