China, whose presence in Latin America until now was largely based on an appetite for raw materials, is diversifying investments by financing much-needed development projects, analysts say.
On its 50th anniversary, the G77+China bloc of developing nations are meeting at a summit that began yesterday in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to promote economic development. Delegations from 133 countries and about three dozen heads of state are to attend.
“China now acts in a different way with South American countries,” said Gabriel Dabdoub, president of the chamber of commerce of the Santa Cruz region, Bolivia’s economic engine.
The Asian power “no longer aims at only at buying raw materials, it wants to get into investing in industrialization,” Dabdoub said.
Bolivia, Latin America’s poorest country, has experienced more than 6 percent growth in recent years and is planning major infrastructure projects.
“China is particularly attracted by industrialization projects that the country needs over the next 10 years and which cost an estimated US$42 billion,” Dabdoub said.
Chinese firms have expressed interest most notably in building a railway from Bolivia to Brazil, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as in road and river connection projects.
On a trip to Brasilia, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affaurs Wang Yi (王毅) announced Beijing’s interest in boosting its investments and ties with Latin America and Caribbean nations. Though Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) will be notably absent from the Santa Cruz summit, he plans to attend a meeting of emerging economic powers Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Brazil next month.
Mass purchase of raw materials and sales of manufactured goods have made China the No. 2 trading partner of several countries in the region in recent years. In 2009, China surpassed the US as Brazil’s No. 1 trading partner.
“Until recently, Bolivia did not consider China a partner, it was very wary, but now there is more trade and, in fact, we’ve just acquired a satellite,” Dabdoub said.
Bolivian President Evo Morales traveled to China with several ministers in December last year to attend the launch of Tupac Katari, his country’s first telecommunications satellite.
China loaned US$102.2 billion to Latin American countries between 2005 and last year, particularly to Venezuela and Argentina, a report released in April by the Global Economic Governance Initiative at Boston University said.
Last year, alone, Beijing loaned Latin American governments, public enterprises and private companies US$20.1 billion.
“Today, in terms of trade and investment, China is displacing the region’s traditional partners like Europe and the US,” Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade president Gary Rodriguez said.
China “certainly plays a greater role in the new millennium and will strengthen its commercial expansion by coming together with Latin America,” Bolivian analyst and former foreign minister Armando Loayza said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
RSS