Latin America 21: Latin American Relations under Xi Jinping | Columnist | Viewpoint

Por Sergio M. Cesarin *

@Latin America 21

During Xi Jinping’s administration, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) played an important role Provide space for political capital and greater influence in the region that favors China rather than the United States. Particularly important factors are the continuous economic growth of China as a demand country for Latin American exports, the regional reception of China’s foreign direct investment (FDI), the production associations of manufacturing and service industries, and China’s financing of infrastructure projects. Others.

En tiempos de Xi Jinping, China’s strategy for the region is consistent. China’s safeguard stance on globalization and world free trade has narrowed the gap between the region and its own interests. As President Xi Jinping has expressed, China’s desire to build “reducing asymmetric globalization”, promote “mutual international cooperation”, and promote the construction of a “community with a shared future for mankind” is consistent with Latin America’s interests and values.

Since President Xi Jinping came to power, entering the mid-century, under the paradigm of “Chinese Dream” of revival, development, and modernization, China’s development trajectory as an emerging power has continued to evolve; at the political level, this vision has helped to consolidate the president’s role as a public The position of the supreme leader and center of major policy decisions; economically, the restoration of China’s vision has promoted the re-transformation of the country’s production institutions through an active technological development policy and the projection of its military power to the region and the world.

Xi Jinping and the transformation of contemporary China

Throughout this trajectory-past and present-the leadership of the president has always been and is unquestionable. The leadership based on the normative reengineering of the party constitution allowed Xi Jinping to remain in power indefinitely, thus ending the institutional arrangements and factional balance within the Communist Party of China established by Deng Xiaoping when he took office. Reform process.

The arguments put forward to confirm its image as the central position of the “core” (hexin) support the need to ensure internal stability and ensure governance in the context of increasing domestic and international tensions (Reading the conflict with the United States), adhere to the fight against corruption and uphold integrity, as an important means to protect the party’s discipline, expand the country’s participation in the national economy, insist on building a powerful country in science and technology, and promote the modernization of the military, to ensure that the country resists external threats and protects the surrounding oceans. China believes that its sovereignty The area within the range (South China Sea).

From an internal point of view, Chairman Xi Jinping’s leadership style is characterized by abandoning the dominant style of “democratic centralism”, re-proposing the supremacy of Marxism-Leninism as the party’s political guiding ideology, and abandoning Western values ​​and standards. Regarding human rights or supporting democratic political organization, allusions appear in speeches and statements directed at political cadres, officials, armed forces, businessmen, and society as a whole.

In the external field, Xi Jinping takes a hard line Xi Jinping has shown the militarization of China’s foreign policy in the region, and has less reconciliation stance on issues. problem The DPP government unifies Taiwan or democratizes Hong Kong, increases military activities in the South China Sea, continues to be tense on the border with India, and escalates tensions (political, commercial, and other sensitive factors and military) with the United States.

Although the human rights situation of Uighurs and other minorities, or the suspicion of China’s responsibility at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, eroded their international image, mix “Wolf Warriors” and “Vaccine Diplomacy” Alleviate Negative Effects Soft power, Once again positioned China as a promoter of vaccine “universalization” and regarded it as a “Global Public Good” (GPG).

In this context, in the post-Trump era and in Biden’s presidency, the “bipartisan effort” of the United States continued to contain China. The strategy shows several aspects; neutralize China’s efforts to reshape the successor to the “old system” of the 20th century world order, contain its military expansion in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific (IOR), and maintain its high-tech field Advantages, reiterate alliances with Asian partners (allies between democracies) to avoid Chinese cyber espionage and reduce bilateral trade deficits. In this context, in the face of an unstable world, China and Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole have assessed each other’s strengths and weaknesses, rather than a way to raise Washington’s doubts.

China-Latin America Relations

Latin American countries integrate into China’s global interconnection plan from a global perspective partnership (One Belt One Road/One Belt One Road) and incorporating them into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) is a course of action encouraged by President Xi Jinping. Faced with this situation, a more conservative and militaristic United States is unwilling to agree to China’s expansion in Latin America, and is eager to rebuild trust and regain lost space for regional influence.

Without abandoning the principles of historical action in the international system, the powerful China of the 21st century can only aspire to change the world order that has largely been inherited from the 20th century. The empathy that China has achieved in Latin America has enabled the government to open formal and informal diplomatic channels to encourage commercial activities. The development of research in the academic field And get to know each other more. As happened during the Cold War, despite the precautionary measures taken by the United States, the view of China as a “regional development partner” is still prevailing, and is predicated on the intensification of the future China-Latin America cooperation agenda. (or)

* Coordinator of the Center for Asia-Pacific and Indian Studies (CEAPI) at the National Tres de Fabrero University of Buenos Aires (UNTREF), Argentina. Master of Arts from Peking University. China and Latin America Network: Member of the Multidisciplinary Approach (REDCAEM).

* The column was originally published on the REDCAEM portal.