Argentine President Javier Milei, who harshly criticised China during his election campaign, has announced plans to visit Beijing in January 2025, signalling a potential shift in his approach to the Asian superpower.
In a television interview this week, Milei described China as a “very interesting commercial partner” and said he was “positively surprised by China” – a stark contrast to his earlier rhetoric, in which he referred to China as an “assassin” state while vowing to prioritise relations with Western allies.
Milei expressed gratitude for China’s renewal of currency swap contracts, which he said enabled Argentina to meet its obligations to the International Monetary Fund.
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In June, Beijing agreed to renew tranches of currency swaps worth 35 billion yuan (about US$5 billion) with Argentina’s central bank until July 2026. At the time, the government in Buenos Aires stressed that the measure would be “crucial” to managing the country’s balance of payments flows.
“We had a meeting with the ambassador [Wang Wei],” Milei recounted. “The next day, they unblocked the swaps.”
Any warming in Milei’s ties with Beijing would be a significant development in the battle for influence in Latin America between China, which has invested an estimated US$155 billion in infrastructure projects in the region since 2005.
An ambitious multibillion-dollar Chinese investment in a Peruvian megaport that would tie the region’s economy closer to China and its neighbours is one among many examples of the work Beijing has been doing on this front in recent years.
US officials – including General Laura Richardson, commander of the US Southern Command – have been warning Latin American governments to be wary in aligning with Beijing, but have had little apparent success.
Milei’s planned visit to Beijing for the China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum comes as a condition for China’s agreement to unblock the currency swaps, as previously reported by the Post.
Patricio Giusto of the Sino-Argentine Observatory in Buenos Aires suggested that Milei’s change in tone might be due to disappointment with the US response to his initial overtures.
Wang Wei, China’s ambassador to Argentina (left), with Guillermo Francos, the country’s chief cabinet minister, in Buenos Aires. Photo: X alt=Wang Wei, China’s ambassador to Argentina (left), with Guillermo Francos, the country’s chief cabinet minister, in Buenos Aires. Photo: X>
“I think Milei never understood the nature and dynamics of US foreign policy,” Giusto suggested. “He thought that expressing total alignment would be enough to get financial support and investments from the US.
“And it does not work like that.”
Giusto added that Milei’s pragmatism in the face of Argentina’s economic challenges might also explain the shift. Despite success in controlling high inflation, the country has seen an increase in extreme poverty.
Official data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census showed in September that 52.9 per cent of Argentines are poor, an increase of 11 percentage points compared to the second half of 2023, when Milei took office.
Wang, China’s ambassador to Buenos Aires, told local media that Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers might consider setting up factories in Argentina’s industrial hub of Cordoba.
“Chinese electric vehicle companies will actively consider setting up factories here in Argentina,” Wang said.
“[Our companies] are already present in Brazil with their production and assembly lines, so why can’t they be set up in Cordoba soon, as long as there are preferential policies from the Cordoba authorities to attract the companies involved?”
While immediate investments in the electric vehicle sector may face challenges, Giusto suggested that Milei’s Beijing trip could potentially unlock investment in other critical areas, such as lithium mining.
Argentina holds 21 per cent of the world’s known lithium deposits, a crucial component in electric car batteries.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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