# A Top Trump Ally in Latin America Is Quietly Courting China

> Ecuador's Daniel Noboa has staked his presidency on a close partnership with Washington, but a stalled economy and a second state visit to Beijing show he isn't willing to leave Chinese trade and investment on the table.

- Source: Foreign Time
- Canonical URL: https://foreigntime.com/article/noboa-ecuador-china-visit-trump-ally-belt-and-road
- Author: Foreign Time Newsroom
- Section: Diplomacy
- Published: 2026-08-21T18:01:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T18:01:02.000Z
- Tags: Diplomacy, Ecuador, China, Latin America, Belt and Road

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Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa is spending a week in China, his second visit to the country since taking office last year, even as his closest foreign patron, the Trump administration, works to push Chinese economic influence out of Latin America, according to Foreign Policy's Latin America Brief writer Catherine Osborn. Noboa has built his presidency around a tight partnership with Washington, but in Beijing this week he called Ecuador "a friend on the other side of the Pacific that you can count on," and used the trip to advance Ecuador's role in China's Belt and Road Initiative and press for more Chinese trade and investment.

The hedge reflects Ecuador's economic bind more than any shift away from Washington, the analysis suggests. China-Ecuador trade has grown since a bilateral free trade deal took effect in 2024, running 20 percent higher in the first half of this year than the same period in 2025, according to Chinese government figures. Trade with the United States grew too, by 13 percent over the same stretch, but Quito-based analyst Sebastián Hurtado of the consultancy Prófitas told Foreign Policy that Trump-era tariffs on Ecuador, only partly rolled back after a March exemption deal, likely capped how much further U.S. trade could have grown.

Noboa was elected twice, in a 2023 snap vote and a 2025 general election, primarily on a promise to crush gang violence that had surged since the pandemic amid fights over drug trafficking routes. Nearly three years into his presidency, Osborn notes, homicides remain near historic highs despite a militarized anti-gang partnership with Washington that has drawn criticism from human rights and civil society groups over its opacity and potential civilian deaths; Ecuador's government has largely declined to answer media questions about the arrangement. "The lack of progress on security is a key threat to the Noboa administration," Hurtado said. Ecuador's economy is also expected to grow more slowly this year than last, and while Noboa has cut the deficit in line with IMF recommendations, Hurtado argued he still lacks a clear growth strategy: "Everybody assumes he's business friendly, but that's not enough."

Against that backdrop, courting Beijing gives Noboa another lever to pull. He said this week Ecuador wants to work with China on mining, renewable energy, and infrastructure, building on Chinese investment already announced in Ecuadorian copper mines, though some of those projects remain stalled as Ecuador pushes for different terms, including demands that the mines generate their own power. The trip produced at least one concrete win: China lifted a sanitary-dispute ban on shrimp imports from several Ecuadorian plants that it had blacklisted in recent months, which Ecuador's government attributed to months of negotiations and joint technical work. Noboa is set to continue on to Singapore and Vietnam before the trip wraps up.

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Originally published by Foreign Time. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://foreigntime.com/article/noboa-ecuador-china-visit-trump-ally-belt-and-road.