by VICTOR M. MIJARES
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) shakes hands with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during a welcoming ceremony before their talks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2014. Xi and his Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, agreed here Friday to upgrade bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. PHOTO/Xinhua/Li Xueren/CCTV
After the BRICS summit and a visit to Brazil, China’s President Xi Jinping is embarking on a tour of Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba in a bid to boost ties and gain clout in the region, as analyst Victor Mijares tells Deutsch Welle.
Beijing declared Argentina a strategic partner, but it’s not only soybeans, China is also interested in the Vaca Muerta shale gas.
The trip – Xi’s second to Latin America since taking office as head of state last year – follows a BRICS summit in the northeastern Brazilian seaside city of Fortaleza, where the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to create a development bank and a crisis reserve fund seen as rivals to Western-dominated financial institutions.
The visit also comes as China’s trade with Latin America has surged more than 20-fold from US$ 12.6 billion in 2000 to US$ 261.6 billion last year. As Beijing remains on the lookout for resources to power its growth Xi is visiting Argentina – a key source of soybeans for China, oil-supplier Venezuela and long-time political ally Cuba.
But while Xi’s trip is focused mainly on closing business deals to satisfy China’s demand for new resources, Beijing’s economic and political support to these countries will come at a price, warns Víctor M. Mijares, professor of International Relations at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas and Visiting Research Fellow at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, in a DW interview.
Xi’s trip to Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba comes after the BRICS summit and the state visit to Brazil, how important is this trip?
It is very significant, not only for the host countries, but also for China as an emerging global power. China has a massive economy. It doesn’t only have the world’s largest population, but it is also the largest goods trader. However, it still lags behind the US in terms of projecting its military might. For instance, the US administration of President Barack Obama made the biggest naval shift to the Western Pacific since World War II: the so-called pivot to Asia.
The fact that Beijing remains a secondary military force vis-à-vis the United States and its Asian allies is one reason why the Chinese government is seeking to break free of what it views as a siege operation by the US. At the same time, China is looking for raw materials, new sources of energy, and seeking to keep its dominant position in world markets by deepening economic ties with Latin America. Each of the three Latin American countries in Xi’s upcoming tour of the region is of special interest to China.
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