China’s recent advances toward Latin America have led to an interesting clash of cultures —

On a recent Friday night, as quick salsa rhythms poured out of Beijing’s hottest Latin dance venue, owner Zhou Junyi stood at the entrance and swiveled his hips to display his skill at salsa dancing.

He quickly looked embarrassed and gave up.

“I don’t understand it,” he blurted out. “But it doesn’t matter. I hire professionals.” [Knight Ridder News, via Billings Gazette]

Many Chinese are curious about Latin American music, food, and salsa dancing, thanks to China’s deepening of economic ties with nations such as Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba and Argentina.

China’s president, Hu Jintao, has become quite interested in Latin America’s natural resources — not just oil but also copper (Chile), iron-ore (Brazil), and nickel (Cuba):

Heads of Chinese metal companies, such as Minmetals and Baosteel, accompanied the president’s visit, announcing new projects and partnerships in copper, iron and nickel. In Chile, Minmetals was in talks aimed at pursuing a strategic partnership with Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, in a potential new mine that could see investments of at least US$550 million. Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Corp. is investing in another Chilean copper mine in a joint venture with Switzerland’s Marc Rich Investment Co.

The day before Hu landed in Argentina, Shanghai’s A Grade Trading scooped up the rights to rebuild and reactivate the defunct Hiparsa iron ore mine and processing complex there—a US$25-million deal. In neighbouring Brazil, China’s steel giant Baosteel continued negotiations with Companhia Vale do Rio Doce for the construction of an iron-ore production plant potentially worth US$2 billion. In Cuba, Hu pledged a US$500-million investment in the nickel industry; China will build a new mine in the island’s northeastern Moa Bay area. [Canadian Business, 2004-12-27]

What accounts for China’s tango with Latin America? Saul Landau, writing for Foreign Policy in Focus, blames failed U.S. economic leadership and the subsequent rise of Left-leaning governments in Central and South America:

Why did Chinese leaders choose late 2004 and early 2005 to make their whirlwind spending tour of several Latin American nations? First, they may well have noticed that Latin American governments no longer race to sign onto the U.S.-backed Free Trade of the Americas agreement as they did previously to NAFTA in the 1990s.

Because the free-trade-free-market model failed to perform as predicted – in Argentina it led to bankruptcy — governments that question Washington’s economic model now sit in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba. Bolivia and Ecuador may be next. Indeed, if the radical populist Mexico City mayor Lopez Obredor succeeds in winning the 2006 Mexican presidential election – he is currently the leading contender — U.S.-sponsored trade agreements in the region may all be doomed.

Landau goes so far as to blame the Bush Administration’s Middle East and N. Korea policies: Particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s involvement is leading American investment and political capital to those regions while Latin America is being largely ignored, CAFTA notwithstanding. North Korea rightly commands Washington’s eye, but that is one eye less focused on Central and South America.

The economic ties between China and C. & S. America should be viewed differently, however.

China no doubt seeks greater political — and, by extension, military — influence in the world, and America’s closest neighbors offer a foothold in this hemisphere, further limiting Washington’s reach. After all, America’s interest in central Asia may be unstoppable, from a Chinese perspective; so China has offered a new step to the pas de deux between China and America.

China’s economy is still burgeoning and may, if not handled carefully by the CCP (中国共产党), collapse or, if severely weakened, lead to political instability in that nation. Similarly, Central American and many South American countries have weak economies that have yet to reach the kind of stability that would ensure political and national health to those nations. The tango between China and these countries appears to represent an effort by both hemispheres toward co-development, offering opportunities for stability that would not be present otherwise. America — Americans have long thought of Central and South America as “the back door,” and have too often treated those nations as quaint vacation spots (at best) and as a poverty-stricken little brother (at worst): America’s “third-world brother.” China represents a long-lost big brother, a big brother who is offering Central and South American nations a hand up as both hemispheres seek a way out of instability and poverty together.

The tango between China and Central & South America will not end soon.