"Dig Deep Enough in Nicaragua, and You’ll Find China", The Diplomat, 14 June 2025

Since the 2021 reestablishment of diplomatic ties, the Ortega-Murillo regime has quietly handed nearly 300,000 hectares of land [...] to four mining companies affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.

[...] Nicaragua has bent its legal and constitutional systems to accommodate opaque shell entities with no track record. This legal flexibility [...] enables China to establish influence with minimal resistance or scrutiny.

The four companies – Zhong Fu Development, Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minería Group, Thomas Metal, and Brother Metal – have received an estimated total of 21 mining concessions.

In contrast to earlier actors [...] these firms lack even the minimal transparency of a public-facing corporate structure. The Diplomat was unable to find contact information for any of the companies to request comment.

In 2022 [...] the Sandinista National Assembly reformed Law 387 to allow concession transfers without public bidding, weaken social oversight mechanisms, and concentrate decision-making in the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM).

Then, in November 2024, the regime amended Article 102 of the constitution [...] opened the door to the “rational exploitation” of natural resources and paved the way for projects like the regime’s elusive interoceanic canal.

In practice, these reforms paved to way for China-linked companies to operate in Nicaragua with little oversight.