Chinese influence and expansion has reached Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the past 10 years, the Chinese government has aggressively pursued a trade policy emphasizing a growth in Chinese manufactured imports and exports of Latin American raw materials. China’s focus is on exporting raw materials; such as soybeans, metals, and oil in exchange for a vast amount of Chinese manufactured goods. This aggressive push into the Latin American trade theater has provided exponential growth in the region. However, this Chinese economic model is slowly readjusting the region back to its pre-1970’s state of over-dependence on commodity exports. In addition to becoming a major trade partner in the region, China has become a financial investor in the nations so heavily that many fear China will soon surpass the United States as the major player in the region.
China is rapidly increasing its involvement in the region. Over the past few years, Chinese trade has increased around 30% each year to meet their demand/need for raw materials. In 2010, “China’s share of the regions trade has reached 20%... up from just 1% in 1995.” (Stier 259) This increase has made China the top trade partner for Brazil, Argentina, and Chile and a leading partner in many other Latin American and Caribbean nations. The increase in trade has had a major impact on Latin American economics though as between 2002 and 2010, the number of Latin American people living in poverty dropped from 44% of the population to only 32%.
China’s involvement in Latin America expands further than being involved in trade as they have made a move into becoming a major financial leader and regional investor in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2011 alone, Chinese banks and i...
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...ve Chinese influence without losing the all-important monetary investment, they will return to a state of over-dependency on a single nation. In conclusion, the markets of Latin America are at risk of following solely under the influence of the behemoth Chinese economic model; however, is this market strategically vital enough for the United States or other major player to attempt to stunt Chinese expansion?
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In the global media and especially in the US print media, there is hardly a single day that passes without the mentioning of China and either its internal affairs, or its dealings with one country or the other. China has become a resounding theme in current affairs because of its new role as a sponsor and a facilitator of growth and development projects in developing countries. The one particular region in the world where China’s influence has recently grown to be pervasive is Africa. This influence however faces a collar-grabbing excoriation from the media, from the West and from the World in general. Conversely, sincere opinions from other onlookers are of deep praise for the good and needed support that China is currently giving to African countries. This dual view of China’s development work in Africa has led to a Ying and Yang identity for her, naturally, and may possibly be slowing down the full potential of Chinese investment and development projects on the continent. This paper in response, aims to bring forth a more crystallized review and understanding of China’s role in Africa by seeking out both the positives and the negatives in the enactment of China’s role, and elucidating whether it has brought forth growth and or development.
The economy of Latin American countries such as Argentina have often focused on only one main product at a time and imported many of the other products needed. Argentina especially followed this economic strategy in the late 1800’s. Latin American countries focus on one product it does well and does not stray from that product. The countries were just following trends and taking advantage of what the market dictates is a worthwhile product. This strategy can fall short of having long-term success and lead to a land of poverty. This was the case in most every country in Latin America, and all the economy revolved around the growth of industry in each country. Technology, increased immigration, European influence, and political policy all influenced the economic state of Latin American countries and led to economic struggles.
...of Latin America, both countries envisioned they would benefit greatly from this trade agreement. This conventional wisdom that the Chile-China free trade agreement would boost all sectors of investment and trade within both countries has partly been successful, while it has also proven to have slightly failed. Although there has been booming trade between both countries, Chile increasingly feels the pressure of Chinese market competition and furthermore both countries have lost out in the advancement of foreign direct investment. With Chile’s chief exports comprising natural resources, China has a more lasting market power simply from the fact that their primary export industry is not perishable. This conjures the question of to what extent will the Chile-China free trade agreement be impacted in the future if Chile’s does not invest in new export market materials.
It seems China’s interest in African countries is not in territorial occupation, but rather in international prominence and expanding its rapidly growing economic agenda. Kenya’s richness in commodities and weak commercial laws are an idealistic setting for rapid market entry, therefore China has been able to effortlessly influence and expand its mercantilist ambitions without distress of competition from the west. Even though the United States is focused in providing conditional aid to Kenya, the effects of Chinese expansion in Kenya on U.S. interest are alarming, for China is offering cold hard cash that is f...
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
China has come to the forefront of the international finance scene following the East Asian financial crisis for two reasons. First, the post reform Chinese economy closely resembles the other East Asian countries. China experienced significant levels of growth led by exports, with a rapid expansion in labor-intensive exports in its early stage of development. Rapid growth was accompanied by a rapid increase in domestic savings and massive inflows of foreign capital (Perkins, 1986). The banking sector dominated financial intermediation and the ratio of non-performing loans was high. Estimates put non-performing loans at China's four leading banks at 25 per cent -- far higher than in South Korea or Thailand before they fell prey to the Asian contagion. Would China be the next victim of the crisis? (Dornbusch, 1997).
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
The political power has had enormous affect to the Latin American economy. Most of the countries in the Latin America remained colonies for over a long period of time; therefore, they were controlled by the Europeans power. These colonies never thought of development of the Latin American countries, rather all wealth from the colonies was taken out to the home country. This situation is similar to other colonized continents such as Asia and Africa. Almost every colonized country in the world is still in the process of development. These countries were never benefited economically from the colonizers. Therefore, the historic imperialism is still harming countries in the Latin America as well as they are still underdeveloped. According to Marxist theory “The colonies were used as places to invest surplus capital and sell goods from the colonizing countries and as sources of cheap raw materials and cheap labor.”(P165) Therefore, the investors will always get high benefits from their investment; however, the raw materials will get low prices for it. Hence, still Latin American countries face various problems due to the excessive use of natural resources and due to late from the Europeans
Huberman, Leo "Latin America & underdevelopment - history of American economic involvement in Latin America" 2003
The article “U.S., China and Thucydides” (Robert B. Zoellick, 2013) addressed the security dilemma between the rising China and the U.S. through the historical story, “the Thucydides trap”. In addition, the chapter 15 in the book US FOREIGN POLICY, by Michael Cox and Doug Stokes, indicated the situation of changing East Asia, rising China, and the role of the U.S. in this region in different periods. Therefore, the materials have revealed an important question about Sino-US relation, which is should the United States cooperate or compete with the rising China?
From the 1970s, there has been a wave of liberalization in China, which was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. This is one of the key reasons to the rise of China to be one of the economic giants in the world. In the last 25 years of the century, the Chinese economy has had massive economic growth, which has been 9.5 percent on a yearly basis. This has been of great significance of the country since it quadrupled the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country thus leading to saving of 400 million of their citizens from the threats of poverty. In the late 1970s, China was ranked twentieth in terms of trade volumes in the whole world as well as being predicted to be the world’s top nation concerning trading activities (Kaplan, 53). This further predicted the country to record the highest GDP growth in the whole world.
China has also expanded their trading industries with countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, ASEAN, India, Russia and Hong Kong. This has not satisfied the Chinese greed for income as they also export and import goods to American countries, name...
Wei-Wei Zhang. (2004). The Implications of the Rise of China. Foresight, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, P. 223 – 226.
China is one of the main viable candidates as this century’s new world power. Today, it maintains a strong economic stance within the international market, and is expanding at a rapid pace. The United States cannot maintain its position as hegemon for the rest of humanity; just as how ...