[Marxism] China Courts Latin America

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(With China-bashing seemingly always in season among
some on the political left. Let's look at China's
expanding influence in what Washington considers its
backyard: Latin America. As a country of relatively
modest numerical and economic magnitude, Cuba needs to
maintain and expand ties with as many countries as it
can, to counter Washington's attempts to strangle it.

(Cuba's influence is felt as an example of what can be
done to resist U.S. domination, its programs of both
medical and educational cooperation, and the demon-
stration effect of what it's been able to achieve by
curbing the influence of private corporations within
its national territory. Cuba's links with Bolivarian
Venezuela are the strongest of these, but the others
seem to be moving along at a slower but steady pace.

(Chinese-Cuban cooperation on economic and diplomatic
matters is well-known and has been increasing in recent
years. China's expanding links with Latin America, and
Washington's declining influence in the region render
U.S. efforts to isolate Cuba less and less successful.

(Recent left electoral victories in Uruguay, Venezuela
and Nicaragua deepen these trends. The steady progress
of moves toward continental integration, which is also
strenghthened by Cuba's steps toward de-dollarizing its
economy further undercuts US regional influence. This
helps strengthen Cuba, diplomatically and economically.)
==========================================================

WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 11, 2004 6:46 p.m. EST

As US Diverts Its Attentions, China Courts Latin America

By CHARLES ROTH

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -- Geopolitics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. That
largely explains why Chinese President Hu Jintao is leading
a large delegation of his countrymen to Latin America,
where the U.S. is seen to suffer from an attention deficit
disorder.

The war in Iraq and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea
and Iran have diverted Washington's focus far from its
southern neighbors. Analysts say U.S. policy toward the
region goes no further than pursuing free trade accords and
anti-narcotics cooperation, leaving plenty of room for
China to court it.

"China is simply stepping into the gap that we've left,"
said William Ratliff, a fellow at Stanford University's
Hoover Institution who specializes in Latin America and
China. "There is trade, but we've mostly ignored Latin
America. China is sort of stepping toward that vacuum."

Hu will begin meeting Friday with his Brazilian counterpart
before moving on to Argentina and then to Chile, where he
will attend the Nov. 20-21 Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation, or APEC, forum. After that, he will spend the
last leg of his trip in Cuba.

Last week, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong told
reporters "this visit is the first one to Latin American
countries by the new generation of top Chinese leaders and
it is of great significance to pushing for the long-term,
steady and all-round development of relations between China
and the four Latin American countries."

He added that "they will sign a range of cooperation
documents" and "strongly upgrade" China-Latin America's
"friendly, cooperative relations."

News reports Thursday were already trickling out that
contracts worth billions of dollars were slated to be
hammered out or finalized. Most involve Chinese investment
in Brazil's stressed physical infrastructure in exchange
for attractive prices on Brazilian commodities such as iron
ore, bauxite and soy.

Given China's voracious appetite for raw materials, trade
between the two countries has grown dramatically, with
Brazil enjoying a sizable surplus. Two-way flows amounted
to $6.98 billion over the first nine months of this year,
already surpassing the $6.68 billion in all of 2003 and
towering over the $2.31 billion in 2000.

Latin American exports to China climbed 72% to $10.87
billion last year from 2002, according to the United
Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean.

But China's interest in Latin America goes far beyond
securing steady supplies of the region's abundant commodity
and energy resources.

Cynthia Watson, a strategy professor at the National War
College in Washington who studies Chinese involvement in
Latin America, said Beijing's moves into the region are
"very calculated."

"Beijing doesn't want to jeopardize relations with the
U.S., but anytime they can get an opening where we've been
a major player, they'll take it because it illustrates
their coming of age, their greater presence on the
international scene," said Watson, who was speaking on her
own behalf and not that of the U.S. government.

To be sure, the U.S. is a vital export market for China,
whose trade surplus with the U.S. this year is projected to
top $140 billion.

Still, China's leaders "will see themselves as successful
down the line if they see states fall into line with their
position, agreeing with them on the use of force, on the
non-violation of sovereignty, on the role of international
organizations" such as the United Nations, Watson said.

Latin American nations, like China, "are extraordinarily
sensitive to issues of sovereignty," she added. "It's a
camp they can call upon in the long run."

Sun Weide, press officer at China's embassy in Washington,
seemed to suggest as much. China and the four Latin
American nations that Hu is now visiting "have identical
... views on international and regional issues," he told
Dow Jones Newswires.

Ratliff, of the Hoover Institution, said China's effort to
grow its influence in the region is quite natural. The U.S.
has "a lot of alliances around the world, and China wants
to build them, too," he said. The Middle Kingdom, he
explained, "is becoming a world power, and world powers
operate on a global stage."

For that matter, the same goes for Brazil, which is trying
to position itself as South America's leader and has been
promoting a reform of the U.N. Security Council that would
give it a permanent seat on the Council. Like China, it's
concerned about a "unipolar world" of U.S. hegemony.

"Any kind of political alliance, working agreements -
nothing necessarily formal - establishes a different pole
in the world, apart from the U.S.," Ratliff said.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that at least seven
agreements are set to be signed during Hu's four-day visit
to Brazil, including one involving the launch of two new
Chinese-Brazilian satellites. Brazil's equatorial location
appeals to China, whose space cooperation with the South
American giant dates back to 1998. "China is interested in
(this) space program because it wants to reap intelligence
from it," Ratliff said.

On the other hand, relations between Brazil and the U.S.
don't appear to be bearing much fruit, at least on the
trade front. The two countries are currently co-chairing
the Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative, in which
efforts to create hemisphere-wide free trade have stalled.

China is pursuing strategic interests elsewhere in the
region, too. It has reportedly offered to help Panama
finance the expansion of the Panama Canal, where Hong
Kong's Hutchison Whampoa group operates ports on both ends.

Panama is one of several Central American and Caribbean
countries that maintains ties with Taiwan, which China
considers a rebel province and has sought to isolate
internationally. Chinese business interests have also
proposed a $1 billion investment in an inter-oceanic
railway in Honduras, according to local press reports from
the Central American nation.

In February, a ministerial-level "China-Caribbean Economic
and Trade Cooperation Forum" will take place in Jamaica.

The country's relations with Hugo Chavez, oil-rich
Venezuela's firebrand leftist leader, have long been tight.
Before former Chinese president Jiang Zemin visited Caracas
in 2001, Chavez went to Beijing, where he declared himself
"a long-time Maoist."

China is exploring the possibility of establishing formal
negotiations for a free trade agreement with Chile, which
already has one with the U.S.

Then there's Cuba, with which Vice-Foreign Minister Zhou
said China maintains "a sound collaboration in political
affairs, economy, trade, science, technology and culture.
The two sides support each other on significant issues
involving their respective sovereignty and territorial
integrity and keep close cooperation in the United Nations
and other international organizations."

U.S. President George W. Bush and Hu are slated to meet on
the sidelines of the upcoming APEC summit in Santiago. But
Latin America may not be on their agenda. Most likely, Bush
will push China, as host of the stalled "six-party" talks
with North Korea, to use its leverage over Pyongyang to get
negotiations - which also involve Russia, South Korea and
Japan - back on track.

Iran, with which China signed a big oil and gas investment
deal a few weeks ago, will also certainly be a topic of
discussion. Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing
visited Tehran, where he said China might block referring
Iran to the U.N. Security Council. The U.S. would like to
have the Security Council, in which China as a permanent
member wields veto power, sanction Iran if it doesn't
abandon its uranium enrichment program.

-By Charles Roth, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2226;
charles.roth@xxxxxxxxxxxx





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