Thinking of China on the shores of Panama
Chances are that as you read this, I’ll be recovering from jet lag from my trip from Beijing to the city of David in western Panama. The trip involves two backto-back overnight flights, first from Beijing to San Francisco and then from San Francisco to Panama City.
Then there’s an hourlong flight to David.
I have family in Panama, so the trip is worth the long haul, and we plan a short visit to Colombia while we’re nearby.
Given the enormous distances between Asia and Latin America, the long flights, in one sense, aren’t too surprising. However, China has been growing closer to Latin America and the Caribbean, and both sides seem to have ambitions for an even closer relationship.
The door has been left open by what has become a progressively more isolationist United States, long the leading power in the hemisphere.
Beijing hopes to build on inroads it has made in recent years, using its economic clout to improve Panama’s shipping facilities, help Argentina with nuclear power projects and buy up a lot of Chile’s cherry production, among others.
At the second ministerial meeting of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Santiago, Chile, in January, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said new areas of cooperation have opened up, including ways to handle corruption, drugs and cybercrime.
The Spanish language and Hispanic culture are also becoming more accessible in China. A MOOK, or massive open online course, has recently been opened by the XuetangX educational company, in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the Cervantes Institute of Beijing, to allow beginners to study Spanish online at no cost. (There is a charge if the student wants a certificate for the course.) The course, called El
Espanol es Facil, or Spanish is Easy, allows students to start studying with an emphasis on practical results in a four-week course. Five hours of study a week is recommended, according to a news release from XuetangX.
It is designed especially for Chinese students by professors from the Cervantes Institute, which is a nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government that is roughly equivalent to China’s Confucius Institute.
As the relationship between China and Latin America grows, this will become more and more significant.
All this brings me back to my journey to Latin America. It seems to me that one challenge facing this relationship is the simple difficulty of getting there.
Direct flights between China and Latin America are rare — you usually have to stop in North America or Europe. Prices are high, especially if you don’t book well in advance.
There has long been talk of more direct flights, such as after Panama established diplomatic relations with China last year. Business and cultural connections, including tourism, would be greatly advanced by better air service, but it is still somewhat of a tough sell from a profit-making standpoint.
That may change. In the meantime, I’ll be recovering at the beach. Subscription for Spanish is Easy is open at http://www.xuetangx.com/ courses/course-v1:ICx+Spanish001+sp/about