Two Empires Fight Over Who Gets to Watch Costa Rica

Two embassies are shouting at each other on Facebook about who should supply the cameras that watch Costa Rican streets. Nobody asked the people being watched.

The US Embassy in Costa Rica posted a message warning local governments against contracting low-cost Chinese technology, including security cameras, license plate readers and digital platforms from Chinese companies. It cited cybersecurity risks, weak data protection, dependence on a single supplier and a lack of transparency in public procurement. The post named no municipality and no company. Just a warning, aimed at town halls, from a foreign power.

The Chinese Embassy fired back with its own Facebook post. It called the warnings unfounded and said they served US interests. Chinese products, it said, are widely used in China and abroad, the cameras and tools help protect people and property, and commercial activity should not be politicized.

Who Has the Power

Costa Rica's government has not publicly responded to the exchange. Neither embassy said which municipalities use Chinese equipment or how many systems are running. Read that again. A public argument over surveillance infrastructure, and the public can't find out where the surveillance infrastructure is.

Both embassies, meanwhile, talk about transparency and data protection as if those were the point. The US message flagged a lack of transparency in public procurement. The Chinese message called the cameras tools that protect people and property. Neither said a word about who controls the footage, who can search it, or whether residents ever agreed to be filmed and tracked by license plate readers.

A Months-Long Turf War

This isn't new. It's the latest round in a string of disputes between the two powers playing out in San José. In January, US Ambassador Melinda Hildebrand listed Chinese economic influence among the challenges facing Costa Rica. That same month, officials in the government of Rodrigo Chaves linked China to a cyberattack detected against the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE).

In March, Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaoyao asked Costa Rica for evidence supporting the cyberattack accusation. She said China had sought cybersecurity information from Costa Rican authorities since 2024 without a response. Two years of asking, and silence.

In May, Wang criticized Washington for revoking the visas of several Costa Rican public figures, among them former President Óscar Arias. So the US government decides which Costa Rican public figures can enter its territory, then lectures Costa Rican towns about who they can buy cameras from. In late October, the Chinese Embassy rejected a US Embassy statement on Chinese mining companies, again calling it unfounded.

What They're Calling "Security"

Strip away the diplomatic language and the pattern is plain. Two states with competing economic interests are using a country's municipalities as the board. Each claims to protect Costa Ricans from the other. Each wants its own technology, its own contracts and its own influence embedded in local government.

The cameras and license plate readers at the center of this fight are tools for watching people. Whether the lens is made in China or somewhere else, the question that never gets asked in these Facebook posts is the one that matters most to the people on the street: who decided they should be watched, and who answers to them?

The Costa Rican government has stayed quiet. The embassies keep posting. And the municipalities, caught between two superpowers' lobbying, get told what to buy by people who don't live there.