China Expands Its Reach in Latin America

[left-of-center2012]

For much of the past decade, the United States has paid little attention to its backyard in the Americas ... All the while, China has been discreetly carrying out a far-reaching plan of its own across Latin America. It has vastly expanded trade, bailed out governments, built enormous infrastructure projects, strengthened military ties and locked up tremendous amounts of resources, hitching the fate of several countries in the region to its own.

China made its intentions clear enough back in 2008. In a first-of-its-kind policy paper that drew relatively little notice at the time, Beijing argued that nations in Latin America were “at a similar stage of development” as China, with much to gain on both sides.

Leaders in the region were more than receptive. The primacy over Latin America that Washington had largely taken for granted since the end of the Cold War was being challenged by a cadre of leftist presidents who governed much of the region ...

Beijing’s invitation came at a fortuitous time: during the height of the financial crisis. Latching onto China’s voracious appetite for the region’s oil, iron, soybeans and copper ended up shielding Latin America from the worst of the global economic damage.

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yampl64r

[2naSalit]

1. And so it is

in Africa. The thing to notice as well is how much is being gobbled up in the US proper. I live near a lot of public lands, national parks and more, a lot of it is currently threatened with mining interests and timber harvest as well as grazing problems... and out of control tourism. Tourism has brought a major flow of Chinese business folks, those who can actually afford to tour the continent - think Panama Papers people, has seriously changed the landscape in a matter of six to eight years. Resorts are being purchased by these folks, they have built numerous new businesses in tourist towns and they are paying cash in many cases. Take a look at what is happening around YNP for a prime example.

It's a global competition between China, Russia and the US, looks like China and Russia have ganged up and knocked the US of its pedestal and are also buying up all the natural resources wherever they can.

[KT2000]

5. exactly - wish more were wise to this

stupid trump thinks he is the top dog because of the military and stock of weapons he can use against his enemies. He is blind to the chess game going on under his nose.
My bet is on China pulling ahead. Their long term plans have been accelerated by trump.

[Blue_true]

9. I doubt China is working with Russia.

China is playing it's own long game and it seem to have deadeye focus on whatever is it's end objective. I don't get the sense that China wants us gone, but they certainly want to solidly surplant us as the world's number one economic power.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Gee, wouldn't it be nice if we had some kind of trade arrangement...

with all the countries around the Pacific Rim to counter China's aggressive trade policies spreading?

We could give it a snappy sounding name with a cool set of initials.

Something like the Trans Oceanic Partnership, or TOP or something.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. After a Global Economics course I took, I posted why the TPP would suck for everyone BUT China!

TPP was a boon for China, as they were not going to join. Effectively undercutting TPP nations.

They do this in Central & South America and Africa now.

The US and EU have trade agreements with nations that promote labor, finance and ecology. Most US & EU nations deal on short-term contracts and contracts that are smaller and can be canceled by corporations before their term ends--that causes costs and instability to countries dealing with the US and EU.

China, on the other hand, operates as a collective nation, and says, we'll sign on to multi-decade contracts for goods, and we don't care what you do to your labor, finance or ecology as long as we get the materials. Not only does that create income stability, but it saves emerging economies the costs of adhering to United Nation MDGs.

China is now the chief trading partner with nearly half of the Central and South American countries, displacing the US.

China then sells their goods back to those nations, specifically undercutting US and EU goods to make those nations dependent on China's low costs. More dangerously is that China sells goods cheaper than what are made in-state, so it slowly displaces local workers, lowers wages further and makes the nationals even more reliant on Chinese goods.


===


TPP would hamstring TPP nations to these development goals, while China remains on the outside, picking off the weaknesses of each nations individually, and undercutting other TPP nations. The only way TPP would work is if China was a signer--which they hinted at becoming, but decided not to join. China's leverage remains if they are not a TPP nation.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029438923#post14

.

[Blue_true]

10. Or better yet, call it the Trans Pacific Partnership, dibs, I thought of it first!

[Vogon_Glory]

3. The Chinese realize that foreign aid expands influence

The Chinese realize that foreign aid expands economic and political influence. At the very least you can force a country to use a lot of your tech specs and engineering standards, something right-wing loud-mouths and ignoramuses never understood.

So as the old Third World made-in-the-USA stuff falls apart and has to be replaced, the new stuff will be Chinese—and so, probably, will be the add-instead.

[dembotoz]

4. Our friends become fewer and fewer

And it's our fault

[roamer65]

7. Just wait until President Obrador goes to Beijing.

That’s gonna set off the Red Dawners.

Seriously, alienating Mexico is going to have serious repercussions.

[Blue_true]

8. China is doing that pretty much all over the world that we and the West ignored.

Africa, small countries of the Middleeast, Pakistan, even Afghanistan. China comes in with honey and through soft diplomacy, expand it's influence. China is out to replace us as the world's preeminent economic power, and unlike Russia, China will use nonviolent, noninvasive methods to achieve it's ends.