Case Study on Chinese FDI in Peruvian Natural Resources – Americas’ Quarterly
China’s huge appetite for energy and minerals to fuel its expanding economy has strained international markets for oil, natural gas, iron ore, coal, copper, nickel, aluminum, and other resources. To satisfy China’s hunger for raw materials, Chinese companies, backed by the government, have been acquiring
equity stakes in natural resource companies, extending loans to mining and petroleum investors, and writing long-term procurement contracts for oil and minerals in Africa, Latin America, Australia, Canada, and other resource-rich regions.
In fact, more than half of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in natural resources is in Latin America. It is concentrated in 34 major projects that stretch from Venezuela and Ecuador through Brazil, Bolivia and Peru to Argentina and Chile. Since China launched its “going out” strategy, encouraging companies to become more competitive, total Chinese FDI in Latin America has increased nearly sevenfold, from $226 million in 2003 to $1.6 billion in 2009.
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For Latin America, China Both Friend And Foe – Forbes
Is China more friend than foe for countries like Brazil and Mexico? A study to be published in Americas Quarterly journal this week shows that the relationship is actually quite well balanced.
By 2004, China’s arrival in Latin America was being felt with the full force of a fire breathing dragon. China imports totaled $17.9 billion to Latin American countries, more than double where they were just four years prior at $7 billion. At the time, I asked Brazil’s Trade Minister at the time, Luis Fernando Furlan, what the country could do to avoid China’s footsteps. His take at the time was basically to design better mousetraps, under the idea that Brazil’s trading partners would buy items like shoes because the design was cool. That might be true to some extent, but the textile and apparel industry in Brazil and throughout Latin America has lost market share abroad and domestically to China competitors. The good news, the ground they are losing is not as bad as some might have thought when China’s presence was just starting to be felt there.
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Latam: exporters rue Chinese rivals – FT report on the Quarterly America study
There’s no doubt that China’s growth has created a market ripe for Latin America exports, particularly natural resources. But have Chinese manufacturers – using those same imported raw materials – hurt the sales of their LatAm rivals? The evidence has mostly been anecdotal. Until now.
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Christopher Sabatini: China’s Geostrategic Designs on Latin America – Fox News Latino
In the last 5 years China’s military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean have grown at an unprecedented rate. Beijing now regularly hosts officers from Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay in its military academies, has expanded arms sales and technology transfers to countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, and in October last year even sent a navy ship to the Caribbean.
Is China—now Brazil and Chile’s number-one trade partner—buttressing its economic interests in the Western
Hemisphere with military ties and alliances? Is this the Middle Kingdom’s equivalent of President Barack Obama’s Pacific pivot to balance China’s saber rattling in Asia?
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China plants bitter seeds in South American farmland – Washington Times
BUENOS AIRES — Few were surprised when Venezuela announced a deal with China last week to restore 1.4 million acres of unproductive farmland across the oil-rich but impoverished South American nation.
China increasingly is buying farmland and agricultural companies in South America to feed its ever-growing population, currently estimated to be 1.34 billion.
The most important aspect of China’s agricultural investment in Latin America is that “it is a part of the increasing physical footprint of the People’s Republic of China that is just beginning to occur,” said Evan Ellis, an assistant professor at National Defense University in Washington.
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China’s export to Latin America: Corruption – CNN
By Ariel C. Armony – Special to CNN
Shoes. Toys. Clothing. China has inundated Latin American markets with cheap goods. This flooding has jolted local producers and generated demands for government measures to protect domestic industries. But there is one Chinese export that has not received enough attention among policymakers, media analysts and public opinion: Corruption.
Though China and Latin America have different values and attitudes, both have traditionally lacked transparency in government. They operate according to informal business dealings which, in turn, undermine or further weaken the rule of law. Corrupt practices exacerbate distortions in public administration, impair sustainable development, erode a nation’s legal culture, and worsen inequality and poverty.
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