China-Latin America cooperation not a threat

For the past more than two decades, China has developed close economic and trade relations with many Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. This has raised unwarranted concerns in Washington, with some fearing that “China is eating our lunch in the region” while others express concern about the Chinese presence and influence in what the United States is used to regarding as its “backyard”.

Florida Republican congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar went so far as to say that “the Chinese are not here for trade. They’re here for war” when she voiced concerns about the Deep Space Station, a joint aerospace program between China and Argentina, which Argentina’s ambassador to the US rejected as false and “absurd”. US President Joe Biden spat out the old chestnut of China’s “debt trap diplomacy” at the recent Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit at which he pledged billions of dollars in support to help build up infrastructure throughout the Western Hemisphere. How to counter what it sees is China’s ascendant power in the region seems to have become a pressing priority in Washington.

Indeed, the mutually beneficial partnership between China and Latin American countries, based on equality, reciprocity and inclusiveness, has been growing over the past two decades. Bilateral trade has grown from $180 billion in 2010 to about $450 billion, and it is expected to surpass $700 billion by 2035. So far 21 Latin American countries have signed on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and China now ranks as South America’s top trading partner and the second-largest for Latin America as a whole, after the US. But that partnership does not target the US.

That the comprehensive cooperative partnership of mutual benefit and common development between the two sides has thrived is mainly due to China and Latin American countries being highly complementary in terms of market demand, resource elements and product structure. For example, China enjoys advantages in machinery and processing industries while the Latin American countries have strong agricultural and energy sectors.

Also, as developing countries, China and Latin American countries are in similar development stages and shoulder the same task of development, which gives them impetus to continuously strengthen cooperation.

It is the zero-sum thinking that prevails in Washington that has led to perceptions that China’s gains in Latin America are US losses. Instead of criticizing China for what it seems to see as a “silent invasion” of Latin America, Washington should review its own engagement with the region, which is characterized by military and economic interventions. The US has caused only poverty and high inequality there. It should change its approach and do more to help the countries in Latin America develop their economies and improve the well-being of their people.

Any effort to try to open a new Cold War front there will lead nowhere.