Officials with the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Co. (cosco) announced on Wednesday a new direct service shipping line from Shanghai to Peru that is seen as a “game changer” for geopolitics in the Western Hemisphere—and China’s role in them.

Over the last four years, the Chinese have spent $3.6 billion to build a megaport in Chancay, Peru, some 50 miles north of the nation’s capital. It is the first port on South America’s Pacific coast deep enough to accommodate the megaships that power the modern global economy. The new line will slash shipping times for such vessels from 40 days to 23.

And it is not only Peru that the project binds more tightly to China, but also Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile, which will use rail and road to connect to the port. This will turn Chancay into what cosco executive Mario de las Casas calls “the gateway from South America to Asia.”

“This changes the game,” former United States State Department official Eric Farnsworth said about the port and new shipping line.

This is partly because much larger quantities of Latin American perishables can now feed the world’s largest food-importing nation. Flowing in the other direction, Latin America will buy significantly increased volumes of Chinese manufactured goods. Overall bilateral China-Latin America trade is expected to swell to unprecedented volumes.

But Farnsworth says China’s new megaport goes beyond just boosting trade. “It really platforms China in a major new way in South America as the gateway to global markets,” he said. “It is not just a commercial issue at that point; it is a strategic issue.”

This reasoning is sound because the Chinese Communist Party’s control of Chancay will further tighten its grip on Latin American resources and increase China’s power over some of America’s neighbor countries. And since China’s laws mandate that Chinese firms take national defense concerns into account, the new port could even open the way for China to build a military base close to U.S. shores.

All of this shows why China was eager to invest so much time and effort into the Chancay port. The chilling fact is that this port is just one part of a sweeping Chinese strategy.

For some 15 years, China has been brokering deals like this one with more than 100 nations across Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The agreements empower China to build not just ports but also railways, highways, bridges, factories, metros, mines, electric plants and all manner of other infrastructure. It is all part of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. This is his strategy to increase Chinese power over numerous countries and strategic areas, and to thereby make more than 100 Belt and Road member states more dependent on China.

This takes on considerable significance in light of prophecies in Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27, which talk about an economic alliance called the “mart of nations” that will emerge between China and other countries, mainly in Asia and Europe. When those passages are viewed alongside Deuteronomy 28:52, it is easy to see that the number one reason for this economic alliance is to besiege the United States and block it out of world trade.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has written a great deal about these passages over the years. In his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, he says this is essentially how World War iii will begin. He draws special attention to Latin America, emphasizing how European countries have already established major influence over many of the continent’s nations, and he explains that after China builds this “mart of nations” pact with Europe, then all the power that China is now amassing in Latin America will translate into even greater European control over the region.

China’s new megaport in Chancay is only one aspect of a globe-spanning trend. It means there are some dark times on the horizon, but there is also great hope laced into these developments. To understand the full picture, read our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches the Development of a Massive Anti-American Trade Bloc.”