Beijing summit highlights China's expanding role in Latin America.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
Thanks to a pair of productive visits by President Xi Jinping, who traveled to Latin America in both 2013 and 2014, the government of China has proven that penetrating an area long considered to be the exclusive domain of the US is by no means a mission impossible.
During those two trips, Xi distributed loans and credits in amounts that were unimaginable for the fragile economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. All together, the Chinese leader visited Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and lastly Cuba, where he put forth a proposal that no one imagined would ever come to fruition: he suggested that the presidents and foreign ministers of the 33 member states of the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribenos (CELAC) gather in Beijing for a summit. And yet it happened--just six months later!
The event took place Jan. 8-9 and resulted in various agreements that business leaders in each of the participating countries celebrated with considerable fanfare. Much was said about Chinese generosity. But there were also a number of people making the argument that China is really just using its enormous investment capabilities to set up profitable business dealings with countries that have been neglected by the US.
Summit participants didn't hold back when it came to praising their host. President Xi, in turn, took every opportunity to point out how trade between China and the CELAC member states has soared, jumping from US$10 billion in 2000 to US$257 billion in 2013. The 26-fold increase in 13 years outpaced the growth percentages registered even within the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), Latin America's most active trade association. Xi shared some other intriguing numbers as well. He noted, for example, that in the next five years, all things being equal, China will import US$10 trillion worth of goods and invest US$500 billion abroad. By the end of the decade, furthermore, Xi expects that China will produce approximately 500 million tourists per year, 140,000 per day.
The staggering tourism figure, first cited in late 2014 by the Global Times, an English-language Chinese daily, is based on research done by the China Tourism Academy and National Bureau of Statistics of China, which note that, while most Chinese tourists still stay within the country, an increasing number are venturing beyond the borders. Approximately 97 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2013, 17% more than in the previous...
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