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Brief History of China-Latin America Relations

China’s Zhou Enlai, during Mao Zedong’s leadership, steered the initial China-Latin America relations by encouraging friendly connections that eventually led to diplomatic relations. The development of diplomatic relations of China and Latin America was in the interest of developing cultural and economic ties. Organizations without ties to the governments of Latin American countries were created to help strengthen these ties between China and Latin America. Starting from 1970, until 1974, China successfully developed diplomatic relations with 12 of Latin America’s countries. Five of them in the early part of the four-year span being Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela. Five more Latin American countries were recognized as foreign constituents of China in the later years of the 1980s. For China and Latin America to expand on their diplomatic relations, China generated four interrelated concepts – “peace, mutual support, mutual benefit, and collaborative development." Since Argentina's main export is soybeans and soybean related products, the Argentinian government in 2002 led by Eduardo Duhalde enforced high taxes of soybean exports, and Néstor Kirchner's following administration doubled that amount. In November of 2004, Kirchner travelled to Beijing and notarized a memorandum concerning China and Argentina's cooperation in future investments and exchanges.

Trade between China and Argentina

Two factors on economic influence within Argentina is China's emigration, and the exports and imports. Approximately 64% of the farmable land in Argentina is reserved for soybean production. Argentina has turned into a main exporter of soybean meal and soybean oil. The exports of soybean meal, primarily used for livestock, signifies 45% of world production, and soybean oil is represented as 60% of world production. Soybeans and soybean related items are charged 35% of their worth; the greater part of these profits embody 5% of Argentina's collective income. Argentina's financial sector has benefitted from soybean exports since the early 2000s.With China’s influence in Latin America during this early period, countries a part of the Mercosur organization also experienced changes within their trade evaluations. The rate of soybean production of the five South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) a part of Mercosur witnessed a 221.4% growth from 1995 to 2010. Argentina was one of China's main trading partners in South America with the bilateral exchange nearly representing US$13 billion. The amount of exports Argentina sent to China was US$5.796 billion, and the imports totaled to be US$7.649 billion. Products produced by Argentina represented 80% of the exports to China, and 98.9% of Argentina's imports are industrial goods produced by China.

During the economic crisis of 2008, with the minor loss in profits in imports and exports, China was recognized as a world power which directly effected the relationship with Argentina. In 2008, when Argentinian trades to China reached US$6,379 million, the entire process of purchasing processed soybean products from Argentina stopped. Already processed soybean products were prohibited from the Chinese market due to China's own competitive soybean crushing industry. This event led to Argentina's bilateral trade deficit from 2007 to 2014 of US$24,164 million. Argentina exceeded US$15 billion, more than twice the volume capitalized from 1990 to 2009. Argentina's total investment was US$143 million in the past two decades and increased to US$5.55 billion. During these two decades, Argentina's economic strategies have been ideal to soybean production which expanded from 1995's, 12 million tons, to 2010's, 52.6 million tons. Overall Argentina’s soybean export to China calculated to be 78.7% of Argentina’s export. During Argentina's bilateral trade deficit, not all of Argentina's soybean products were exported to China; in 2012, India was the most important importer of Argentine soy oil, followed by China, some European countries, Iran, and Peru.

When trade between China and Argentina increased, China started to put resources into Argentina's local markets, financial structures, and localized infrastructures. China invested in large infrastructure projects in Argentina such as roads, railroads, and shipping ports to increase export profitability to China. In 2010, the Economic Commission for Latin America has influenced areas by direct contribution of Chinese investments which has influenced the Argentinian economy. China supplied technological related items such as computer mainframes, radio and television equipment, and cellular devices. Argentina's soybean products totaled to be 89.6% in exports to China in 2010. Chinese interest in Argentina, and in many nations of the area, has been focused on areas of manufacturing connected to exports to China such as oil, railroads to transport products across country, and the soybean industry. In 2013, Argentina was ranked third in soybean production, after Brazil and the United States. The United States' soybean production totaled to be 89 million tons compared to Argentina and Brazil's combined total production of 141 million tons in 2013. The amount of soybean production within Argentina totaled to be 18% worldwide.

Chinese Involvement in Migration and Land Investments

Argentina's National Census listed 11,804 Chinese immigrants residing in Argentina in 2010; 75.6% were from the People's Republic of China. Foreign immigrants are allowed to stay in the country as either "permanent residents", refugees, or "temporary" residents due to the 2004 Argentinian Migration Act. According to the National Directorate of Migration, 17,505 Chinese citizens had their permanent residency requests approved between 2004 and 2013. During the spring and summer of 2014, the National Directorate of Migration concluded that 48.8% of violations of all immigrants were committed by Chinese migrants. This statistic represents a relatively small number of Chinese immigrants within the prison system - specifically the 19 Chinese immigrants out of 2,259 foreigners inside the Argentinian prison system. Crimes committed against the Chinese citizens of Argentina remain unresolved; the Argentinian government has submitted requests to China's Ministry of Public Security for collaboration efforts towards repeat cases of blackmail and threats related to Chinese store owners. After the first initial visit from the Chinese police delegation of December 2011, homicides continued. Argentina and China decided to resume the cooperation agreement of 1997 in order to solve the homicide cases and crimes related to human and drug trafficking.

Both the Chinese government and the Argentinian government regulate the migration communication and flow through administrative decisions. The situation of illegal immigration in 2004 was addressed by the Argentinian government's Decree No. 1169 that insisted on regulating the migration of people from countries not a part of Mercosur. An impact of the Chinese community within Argentina's society and government has spread through the creation of citizen organizations and establishment of offices representing Chinese companies in the last ten years. Chinese community organizations are recognized in Argentina such as groups aimed to improve education and advancement of mass media, as well as provide space for incoming offices of Chinese corporations.

Chinese ventures have focused on governing parcels of open land in Argentina for resources and food production wholly aimed towards Chinese purchase. Neoliberal reforms endorsed by Latin American countries recognize foreign investments as being equal to domestic investment. After the Chinese globalization program of 1999 - "Going Global" - aimed at expanding capital for the Chinese government on a global scale, China International Water and Electric Corporation started to focus on acquiring land in Latin America in 2000. Argentinian land being invested in by Chinese companies would not officially be considered Chinese land, but it would have control over the production of resources specific to that area. As of 2015, Chinese land investment discussions were stopped due to mixed views and concerns.