Today, Tuesday, in Beijing, Xi Jinping will at least give a resounding blow on diplomatic matters, when the IV China-CELAC Ministerial Forum will also bring together his counterparts from Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. The plenary session will be behind closed doors and will be preceded by a lunch hosted by the head of the Chinese Communist Party, who was already in charge of the opening remarks. The event intends to align the stars between the two actors—China and Latin America—on issues such as renewable energy sources and agricultural trade, among others. It is in the air that the Asian giant is interested in key areas of this era, such as lithium—here surely thinking of Chile and Bolivia—or rare earths.
The presence of Gabriel Boric confirms that his relationship with China is one of the points in which he is been more oriented towards the left, or rather, towards the bloc that opposes the United States and the West beyond ideological biases. Boric has been strongly criticized by the more militant and conservative left for his position regarding the Venezuelan crisis, which China and Russia see with redder lenses. All this is happening at a time when the United States is intensifying its offensive to prevent Beijing from continuing to take representative bites out of Latin America's economic-financial heartland. Washington says that offers of financial aid from Asia always come with some kind of gimmick that, in the long run, operates to the detriment of the interests of its “beneficiaries”. Defending the relationship with a strategic partner, China's vice foreign minister said that, rather than being a mere “backyard”, Latin America is “an important part of the global south, with great potential and prospects for development and also an important force for world peace and development.”
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A Chinese company sanctioned by the US government will supply military equipment to Managua, in addition to three other projects overseen by a son of now co-presidents Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega. A Chinese BYD mega-branch in the Brazilian market has set December of next year as a key date for its start-up. On the other hand, these Asian and South American giants will also sign a currency swap agreement valued at about 28 billion dollars, a dynamic that has much to do with the BRICS´ rationale. Xi Jinping said a few hours ago that in 2024 a record in bilateral trade with the region was reached, surpassing for the first time the barrier of 500 billion dollars. CELAC is a mechanism that has lost steam, and was established at a time when the left held the key to several presidential palaces in the region, with Venezuela acting as the economic balance.
