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Donald Trump has made it clear to Latin America during his four years in office: Don’t do business with China. But this message did not reply.
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House on January 20, Beijing is exerting its influence over a vast expanse of resources known as America’s “backyard.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January. Image: Reuters.
An investigation of Reuters– including interviews with current and former officials, advisers, and analysis of trade data – shows that under Trump, China surpassed the United States in power and influence over most of Latin America.
“You must be aware that Trump’s incompetence and negligence in Latin America and the Caribbean will end on the first day of my administration,” Biden said in March.
But this commitment will not be easy to fulfill. Since 2018, China has overtaken the United States as Latin America’s largest trading partner, if Mexico is excluded. They buy copper extracted from the Sierra de la Andea, Argentine cereals and Brazilian meat.
Beijing also increased investment and low-interest loans to the region, supporting energy projects, solar farms, dams, ports, railways and highways.
Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga spoke about the attractiveness of China in an interview in La Paz earlier this year, emphasizing that, along with local powerhouse Brazil, China is the most important partner for them.
“People ask me who I like more, America or Europe? I said Brazil. What about second place? It’s China. This is the reality of South America,” said Quiroga.
Area officials warned that China, the main economic and diplomatic partner of many countries, will hardly be “expelled” from the region.. China’s billions of dollars are an important lifeline for heavily indebted emerging countries, and this trend has been compounded by the impact of Covid-19.
“I think China cares more about Argentina than the United States about Argentina. It makes a difference,” said an Argentine government official.
China is currently the number one trading partner of Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and other countries. They outnumber the United States in trade with Argentina.
Excluding Mexico, China’s trade with the region surpassed the United States in 2018 and intensified in 2019, to more than $ 223 billion compared to US trade of $ 198 billion, according to an analysis of the database. . Comparative data from the United Nations.
However, the United States is still behind China if we include Mexico, its main trading partner last year.
Some countries in the region see the Trump administration as merely criticizing its Latin American counterparts for getting too close to China, especially through cheap financial or technological ties. The race to dominate 5G heats up.
Mark Feierstein, a former adviser to Barack Obama, said that Trump’s lack of interest in multilateralism and the withdrawal of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) created a vacuum that China had filled. And Biden will find a way to reverse that.
“What Trump has done is make China emerge as a better partner. All of that will change,” said Feierstein, now a senior adviser to Albright Stonebridge Group and CLS Strategies.
Analysts and former advisers said that Biden Administration May Give Latin America Higher Priority, although they are still busy overcoming the aftermath of the pandemic and re-establishing relations in Europe and Asia.
Janet Napolitano, a former Homeland Security Secretary under Obama, said Biden “sees strong ties in Central and South America to bring strategic benefits to the United States.”
Biden’s experts will continue to warn Latin American countries not to approach China, but they can do more to please them, offering more financial incentives and restoration. humanitarian aid that Trump has cut.
“The Biden administration will pay attention to South America’s dependence on the Chinese commodity market and strive to provide more positive and generous support,” said Benjamin Gedan, a former Obama-era National Security Council official. and is currently a scholar at the Wilson Center, he says.
China seized the opportunity during the pandemic to strengthen ties in Latin America, send medical supplies, including breathing apparatus and masks, to protect against Covid-19.
In Argentina, in recent months, the government has announced a series of new or expanded initiatives with China, testing vaccines, expanding currency swaps, collaborating in space, and offering military research courses. Chinese for students of the defense university of this country. The two countries discussed the possibility of President Alberto Fernández making a state visit to China regarding Argentina’s participation in the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative.
Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue, said that although China’s government loans to Latin America have declined slightly, in return, commercial bank loans continue. Continuity is promoted.
“China’s economic diplomacy, whether through trade or finance, has opened many doors,” he said, referring to Exim Bank’s $ 2.4 billion loan to Ecuador this year. China.
The United States appears to have changed course in the months leading up to the presidential elections, launching a series of initiatives in the region to compete with China, but many argue that this effort is too late.
“This is a high-powered competition and it’s happening all over the world, including Latin America,” said a senior US administration official who did not name. “We have a strategy and we are trying to push back the opponent.”
After a visit to Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Panama, Francis Fannon, Undersecretary of State for Energy Resources, said that the pandemic runs the risk of bringing some countries in the region closer to partners such as China.
“Covid-19 is influencing the economic and psychological decision-making of countries. We want to encourage countries to continue on the path towards reform that they are already in,” Fannon said. “The United States is the right partner, has been and will continue to be.”
Phuong Vu (According to the Reuters)
