Xi's South American Tour: China Takes Centre Stage as U.S. Heads for the Wings
Xi's South American Tour: China Takes Centre Stage as U.S. Heads for the Wings
China is "taking advantage. The question is, can we do better?," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to the South China Morning Post.
As Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the US$3.5 billion Chancay port in Peru this month that promises to jump-start exports in the region and create a gateway to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken oversaw a ceremony just a few miles away to give US$6 million in 1980s diesel locomotives to the Andean nation.
The split screen said it all. One was about the future, the other about the past.
“Delivering used locomotives, that’s a good thing,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. “But if you land side by side with a multibillion-dollar state-of-the-art port that will redefine trade between the region and China, it comes up a poor second.” [...]
While the growing gap between Chinese and US investment, focus and attention in South America has been evident among analysts, this everyday example hit home for experts and laymen alike.
“It solidified in the minds of the casual observer what the reality is,” added Farnsworth, formerly with the US State Department and the office of the US Trade Representative. “That is the lasting impression that’s going to carry forward for the foreseeable future.” [...]
In 2016 and again in 2024, “it shocked me to have the leader of China, the leader of world’s largest communist party, declare that they would be the protector of free markets. It’s extraordinary chutzpah,” Farnsworth said.
“But what made that possible is the fact that the United States has meaningfully been withdrawing and creating a vacuum".
“I can’t blame China. They’re taking advantage. The question is, can we do better?”
