[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Editorial: China's Latin Business Trip

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Editorial: China's Latin Business Trip

November 25, 2004
 


 

Latin America has not gotten much sustained attention from
Washington recently, but it has begun drawing remarkable
high-level interest from Beijing. While President Bush
managed only a four-hour stopover in Colombia on his way
home from last weekend's Asia-Pacific summit meeting in
Chile, China's president, Hu Jintao, has just completed a
12-day four-country trip in which he announced more than
$30 billion in new Chinese investments in Latin America.
Mr. Hu also signed a number of long-term supply contracts
to fuel Beijing's torrid economic expansion for years to
come. 

China's growing economic involvement is largely positive
for Latin America. It brings much-needed capital for
modernizing creaky infrastructure and expanding the
production of raw materials from mining to agriculture.
There will also be painful adjustments, however, as
swelling volumes of new Chinese manufacturing exports
displace less efficient Latin American competitors. 

For the United States, still the region's largest economic
partner, China's increased presence poses no economic or
strategic threat. It may, however, have the healthy side
effect of spurring Washington to stop taking the region for
granted and to begin paying more heed to its lagging
development, dangerously uneven income distributions and
deep misgivings about growing United States unilateralism
in international affairs. 

Mr. Hu's travels took him to Brazil, Chile, Argentina and
Cuba. China is now Brazil's second-largest trading partner,
buying large amounts of iron ore, bauxite and soybeans.
Last month it displaced the United States to become the
leading purchaser of Chilean copper. 

In Argentina, Mr. Hu unveiled nearly $20 billion in new
Chinese investments, much of it in railways and energy
exploration. In Cuba, China's main interest is nickel. A
similar trade dynamic is already well under way in
Australia and Southeast Asia, where Mr. Hu made last year's
Asia-Pacific summit meeting in Thailand the centerpiece of
a regional economic and diplomatic sales tour. 

Historically, Latin America has suffered from the notorious
volatility of international commodity markets. The promise
of steadily increasing demand from the robust Chinese
economy is clearly welcome. So is the prospect that
Washington may become more attentive to Latin concerns as
it competes to maintain its traditional diplomatic
influence in the region. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/25/opinion/25thu2.html?ex=1102410756&ei=1&en=1152b6977426d014


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