China signed a Joint Action Plan for Cooperation with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (celac), following a December 3 summit. The 33 countries, including major economies such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela, agreed to a “comprehensive” plan that will cover almost all aspects of life for over 680 million people. It includes resolutions to incorporate Chinese-language education, establish a space cooperation forum, and explore geological and mining resources in the celac member countries.

China promises collaboration in agriculture, banking, energy, trade, aviation, science and digital infrastructure. It has also committed to aiding in education, fighting poverty, reducing carbon emissions, and building infrastructure. While China appears generous and magnanimous, United States Army War College research professor Evan Ellis told the Washington Examiner that the deal represents China’s desire to “take over” the region and threaten the United States.

“The Chinese don’t say, ‘We want to take over Latin America,’” Ellis said, “but they clearly set out a multidimensional engagement strategy, which, if successful, would significantly expand their leverage and produce enormous intelligence concerns for the United States.”

Latin America is a strategically important region. Not only is it resource rich, but it’s also in America’s backyard. Securing a foothold in the area not only secures an abundance of raw materials to fuel an empire, but it also directly challenges American power.

China has pumped billions into Latin America for decades. Trade rose from $12 billion in 2000 to $315 billion in 2020. Now, it has replaced the U.S. as South America’s top trading partner. China’s ultimate ambition is to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power.

For their part, Latin American powers are happy to help make this happen. covid-19 has given them little choice. The massive Chinese market is sustaining Chile’s copper industry, Colombia’s oil commerce, Brazil’s soy cultivation, and Uruguay’s beef production. “We’d rather not be so dependent on exports to China, but what is the alternative?” Paulo Estivallet, Brazil’s ambassador to China, told Time last year. “It’s just more profitable to sell here than anywhere else.”

In return, China is getting its way. On December 10, Nicaragua closed the Taiwanese Embassy and recognized Beijing instead. It became the fourth Latin American country to do so. This despite the U.S. recalling its diplomats from the three other countries that had done so.

Beyond that, 19 Latin American and Caribbean countries have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Most have been willing recipients of China’s vaccine diplomacy. The view of China among locals who buy, wear and use Chinese goods is increasingly positive. More than just goods and services, China is exporting goodwill into Latin America.

The United States has offered very little resistance to Chinese encroachment, something that is worrying many analysts. “The challenge is comprehensive, and there’s absolutely a security and military interest there,” Ellis said. “That threat is growing, and it’s a different kind of threat than what we saw with the Soviets.”

Part of the problem is America’s approach to Latin America. Its priorities have been to fight government corruption, drug trafficking and illegal immigration. But these same issues are becoming radically worse in the U.S. Even though it warns about the dangers of dependence on China, it fails to solve the present challenges in Latin America and within its own borders.

The U.S. is, therefore, especially ill equipped to present itself as an alternative to Latin America. China, on the other hand, is an attractive, short-term solution synonymous with money and development.

Although the U.S. is allowing China free rein in Latin America, Europe could be another story.

Europe is suffering from its own problems with leadership and unity, but it has a long history with Latin America. Their shared Catholic heritage is a powerful unifier. Half of all Catholics are in Latin America. Many Nazis found a haven in South America after World War ii. German and European businesses have flourished in corporate and industrial Latin America for decades.

Will Europe allow China’s rapidly developing economic inroads undo decades of shared history?

History shows that the religious bond Europe and Latin America share is stronger than the current economic ties being forged by China. As Ambassador Estivallet said, Latin America would rather not be dependent on China. It would prefer to be linked to Catholic Europe instead. Europe is currently too divided to be a suitable alternative to China. But very soon, it will be. In fact, Chinese activity will spur European unity and catalyze this Catholic reunion.

Those familiar with the Trumpet will be familiar with this prediction. It is based on geopolitical trends and analysis of history. Above all, it is based on Bible prophecy.

Many people scoff at the veracity of the Bible and its prophecies. But world events are increasingly aligning with what is spelled out in the Bible.

Take the book of Daniel, for example. Daniel records what will happen at the “last end,” the days we are living in now (Daniel 8:19). This book mentions three major powers battling for supremacy in these last days: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. … But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him …” (Daniel 11:40, 44).

For decades, the Trumpet has connected global events to the fulfillment of this and other related prophecies. The king of the north will be a German-led Europe, which handily defeats the king of the south, Iran-led radical Islam. Thereafter, “tidings out of the east,” a military alliance headed up by Russia and China, will worry Europe. (Please request your free copy of Russia and China in Prophecy for more details.)

But before then, in the buildup to military conflict, there will be economic confrontation. Latin America is poised to become the ideological and economic battleground for these two massive power blocs.

World events are creating the conditions for these prophecies to be fulfilled. Europe is largely divided today, but it is on the brink of uniting in a powerful way. Very soon Europe will confront increasing Chinese inroads into Latin America. Notice what we write in our booklet He Was Right:

Europe will not sit passively as Beijing gobbles up Latin America’s wealth.

As the size of China’s Latin American footprint grows, Europe will work with ferocity to bolster its own presence there. Europe is troubled by the roots the Chinese (and to a lesser degree the Russians) are extending into Latin America because it knows that if the Asian axis can conquer the Americas, then not only would the Asians be able to monopolize the resource-rich continents, but they would also basically have the European landmass surrounded—with the Americas on Europe’s right and the Asian lands on Europe’s left.

At present, the lack of cohesion among European nations prevents Germany and the EU from doing much to reverse China’s deepening inroads into Latin America. But Asia’s drive into the Latin region will actually act as a catalyst for EU unity.

The United States is conspicuously absent from the account in Daniel 11. We can see the seeds for this absence being sown today in its inaction toward the Chinese encroachment. Bible prophecies indicate that it’s going to get a lot worse. China and Europe will soon be in control of the wealth in Latin America and the rest of the world. They are going to use this control to block the United States out of world trade.

That is what your Bible says. Please request our free booklet He Was Right and read it alongside your Bible. This booklet details and explains decades of forecasting about these very events happening today and those to happen in the very near future.