What does China’s first naval visit to Uruguay say about its Latin American ambitions?

The PLA Navy hospital ship Silk Road Ark arrived at the Uruguayan port of Montevideo last Tuesday for a four-day technical stop. The port call, as reported by China’s state news agency Xinhua, marked the first visit by a Chinese naval vessel to Uruguay – which sits between South America’s two biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina. Analysts said the inaugural visit signalled that Beijing’s efforts to expand its military exchanges in the western hemisphere were unaffected by America’s military...