; (B) has acquired and built new port facilities and other transport and energy infrastructure in Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and elsewhere in the region to expand its footprint in Latin America; and (C) has developed strong partnerships and engaged in extensive deal-making in telecommunications and other technology-intensive sectors in the Latin American and Caribbean region. (4) In 2015, the People’s Republic of China and countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held the first meeting of the China-CELAC Ministerial Forum, at which they agreed to a 5-year cooperation plan regarding politics, security, trade, investment, finance, infrastructure, energy, resources, industry, agriculture, science, and people-to-people exchanges. China is also active in other regional institutions, including multilateral development banks. (5) The United States Southern Command has warned that China’s space and telecommunications ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean have created United States commercial and security vulnerabilities. (6) China has spent more than $244,000,000,000 on energy projects worldwide since 2000, 25 percent of which was spent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although the majority of this spending was for oil, gas, and coal, China has also been the largest investor in clean energy globally for almost a decade. (7) China promotes the repressive use of technology— (A) by selling crowd control weapons and riot gear used against demonstrators