Chinese President Xi Jinping and Peruvian counterpart Dina Boluarte inaugurated a $1.3 billion port that could transform South American trade with Asia just as Beijing prepares for a potential trade war with the US.

The port opening in Chancay underscores China’s growing clout in a region that once looked primarily to the United States for economic opportunity.

The port has the potential to “transform trade” by turning Peru into a shipping hub thanks to Chinese investment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday inaugurated Latin America's first Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru -- a symbol of the Asian superpower's growing influence on the continent as it prepares

On the edge of Peru’s coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America.