My bud Joel Haas alerted me to this article in El Pais in Spain on China's backing of bonds for sports arenas, funding of festivals, and other influence buying activities in Central America. This is exactly the same dollar diplomacy that is happening in the South Pacific.....Ahora la presencia china chispea como una luz amarilla que cada cierto tiempo se enciende y recuerda que ahí está, que importa. La donación de 20 millones de dólares para los damnificados por las lluvias, el obsequio de un nuevo estadio de fútbol valorado en 73 millones de dólares, la compra de bonos del Estado con cifras ocultas, promesas comerciales, planes en el sector petrolero y comedidas posiciones políticas en temas chinos conflictivos, como el del Tíbet, han sido las primeras muestras de la relación con Costa Rica, con la cual China ha pretendido colarse en la única región del mundo donde carecía de aliados diplomáticos. Tras tocar la economía, la política y hasta el fútbol, las artes fueron la más reciente plataforma de presencia china, al ser el gigante oriental el país invitado en el FIA que organiza el Gobierno costarricense.Don't read Spanish? That's why they invented GoogleTranslation:
Now the Chinese presence sparks as a yellow light that flashes every so often and recalled that there is, that matters. The donation of $ 20 million for those affected by the rains, the gift of a new football stadium valued at $ 73 million, the purchase of bonds with hidden figures, promises business plans in the oil sector and nuanced positions Chinese conflicting policies on issues such as Tibet, were the first samples of the relationship with Costa Rica, with which China has sought colarse in the only region in the world where lacked diplomatic allies. After handling the economy, politics and even football, the arts were the latest platform Chinese presence, as the giant Eastern country invited in the FIA organised by the Costa Rican government.Like Taiwan, China cultivates Cental American nations because some of them have Free Trade Agreements with the US, and so are useful to pipeline exports through. China and Costa Rica were talking about a free trade agreement earlier this year (don't know if it was completed). After the Yanqui imperialists, China is Costa Rica's number 2 trading partner.
With Bush falling victim to one of the classic blunders -- the most famous is: "Never get involved in a land war in Asia" -- the US seems to lack the drive to counter China's expanding influence.
[Taiwan]
To some extent, the Latin American countries invite this though. True the US could be doing more to counter China's influence in its backyard, but it is no secret that many Latin American countries want an alternative trading partner to their northern neighbor.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I think that we will increasingly be seeing countries such as Vietnam wanting better relations with the US in order to counter the influence of its own northern neighbor.
The world looks like it is heading for a situation where everyone will be intertwined with everyone to counter everyone's influence.
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Well, who can really blame these South American countries with all of the death and anti-democratic misery caused by the neo-liberal agenda from Chicago?
And how's Iraq going these days? ;>)
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For thousand years, China hadn't changed anything about dealing with affairs of other countries: "I'm the center of the world; you're either my colony or will be my dependency."
ReplyDeleteTaiwan's condition now is poor and dangerous, and I'm very happy to find your blog showing lots of aspects of Taiwan with deepness that few foreigner has.
P.S. There is a theme song of a movie called "The orphan in Asia", which describes Taiwan during the war against CPC. It's very sad whenever I hear it. Maybe you would be intrested in it."亞細亞的孤兒"
Alan 9662316
They made a movie of that story?
ReplyDeleteA couple of things,
ReplyDeleteThe PRC is following the same pattern in Central America as in Africa. As a matter of fact, there are a lot more pressing needs ( like hospitals or roads or bridges, that Taiwan was providing, while the PRCs is not putting in as much, that 20 million was a small dent compared to the horrific damages of the floods. Taiwan would have done more, followed up, sent medical teams).
When China comes in, they always build an stadium. For example, in a certain African nation, it is in the middle of the desert, with no real access nor utility for the common, majority of people.
The stadium represents they strategy: higly visible, with lots of fanfarre, but not much substance.
As to the losing US influence, many say its because the US is concentrated in the Middle East oil-politics, while hampered by its own eonomic depression. In Latin America, rejection of the US has to do more with the return to power of the leftist goverments, fueled by the extreme poverty caused in turn by corruption and exclusion of most of the population from the economic arena -not even as workers. Large part of the population are "surplus", kicked out of the cities, of the land, and on the wrong end of a long barrel...
Sure, they can blame the US for fueling the civil wars, the shackle of the unpayable external debt, and other issues, but during the Cold War period, Latin America received substantial economic "assistance", which was misused or directed into a few pockets. After the wars, the people were tired of the bloodshed, and tried to succeed economically, only to find the same cronism and lawlessness that sparked the wars originally.
Thus, we are trapped in a cycle of leftist governemt-military coup-civil war-extreme right governmet-leftist back again-coup again-etc.. but now the US is unable to participate beacuse of its won thing. Will China step into this mess, too?
China has become the only mayor supplier of food, not only electronics, garments and other daily needs, in Central America. This is the key to their power, not as much as what they buy, but what they sell, and more importantly, who in those countries benefits from being the middle man.
Ticoexpat,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your great contribution. It seems that the world was misled that U.S. is a beacon of hope for democracy, and human right. The time is right to tell the world that U.S. was not, and will not be the benevolent and civilized country that they claimed to be.
beway, I don't think that is what he was saying. I mean, we all know that the US has its human rights issues too. But the point was that the situation in South America is due less to the US and its neglect than to the cronic shit that goes on in South America... same thing for Africa.
ReplyDeleteChina represents a convenience for them... another big investor to gain money from. Human rights is not the issue here.
Since the Latin American wars of independence, Latin American governments have disliked the United States because of the economic and political influence it has wielded. This is nothing new. Now that the Cold War is done, the same old animosity between the US and Latin America is back. No surprise there.
The good terms will last as long as China is pumping money in. I highly doubt that the Latin Americans, or the Africans for that matter, have any real love for the Chinese.
Basically, beway, my point is that you are looking at things as a simplistic "the bad US is being found out" in this situation rather than considering the wider historical context. This is very tempting to do, especially since the Iraq fiasco, but fundamentally wrong since it ignores events of the past 150 years.
ReplyDeleteThe US has never been loved in Latin America and never will be. Nor will China be, especially when their need for raw materials slows.