China helps LatAm with not just words

Officials rebut claim that Beijing is making region more dependent

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson claimed that in Latin America, China "offers the appearance of an attractive path to development" that "often involves trading short-term gains for long-term dependency".

The reality is that China is actually promoting the region to develop independently.

Tillerson was scheduled to wrap up his first visit to Latin America on Wednesday to reassert US influence in a region that US President Donald Trump made little effort to engage within the first year of his presidency.

In listing the priorities where China and Latin America and the Caribbean countries can work on in years to come, Beijing recently has said that it is ready to help the region develop competitive homegrown pillar industries.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that fostering such industries with a competitive edge is key to breaking developmental bottlenecks in the region.

"China has the equipment, technology, funding and training opportunities you need," Wang said at a ministerial meeting between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum in Santiago, Chile, on Jan 23.

He said China will ramp up support for the early establishment of an independent and diversified industrial system in the LAC countries.

Jose Bernal, Mexican ambassador to China, said China's investment in the field of sci-tech and infrastructure is important for Latin America.

China's financing cooperation with Latin America has benefited more than 80 livelihood projects in more than 20 countries, he said on Feb 2.

Before his weeklong trip to five nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Tillerson warned the region's economies against excessive reliance on economic ties with China.

"China is getting a foothold in Latin America. It is using economic statecraft to pull the continent into its orbit," he said in a Feb 1 speech.

Trump's approval

Alexander Kliment, Eurasia Group's director of global research, corporates, said in a post on Tuesday that no region in the world has soured more quickly on Trump than Latin America, where approval of the US president has tumbled to 16 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll.

"It's easy to see why. Trump seems to speak of the region almost uniquely as a source of drugs, criminals, unwanted refugees and US job losses," said Kliment.

In comparison, China sees Latin America and the Caribbean as a region of emerging economies teeming with aspiring people.

"The LAC countries are striving for development, revitalization and people's wellbeing, and have made ambitious development plans with a strategic vision," Wang said at the Santiago forum.

In an opinion piece in the Miami Herald on Feb 3, Andres Oppenheimer said: "While Trump is insulting Latin Americans, the Chinese are courting them."

The columnist and anchor of the TV show Oppenheimer Presenta said that after decades in which the US largely looked the other way, the Trump administration has decided to confront China over its growing influence in Latin America.

"Trouble is, you can't win over Latin American countries if you're constantly insulting them," Oppenheimer said.