[Text/Observer Network Columnist Gisela Sernadas]
We always witness history through images. Argentine-born Che Guevara's warm handshake with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai in the 1960s represents the friendship between the peoples of the two continents and the comradeship in the class struggle.
Che Che Guevara and Chairman Mao Zedong (infographic)
Che Guevara and Premier Zhou Enlai (infographic)
This week, we see a new photograph that will remain in my mind for decades to come because of its historical significance and the important opportunity it symbolizes for my people and my country.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. During his visit to China, President Fernandez visited chairman Mao's memorial hall and laid wreaths. President Fernandez is the chairman of The Peronist Party (PPP) in Argentina, which has "very important historical ties" with the Chinese Communist Party, and President Perón himself maintained friendship and correspondence with Chairman Mao Zedong. In 1965, the Peronist delegation came to China in the name of "people's diplomacy", participated in the "May Day" International Labor Day celebration held in Tiananmen Square, and sang the "Peronist March" to pay tribute to the Chinese people.
Pictured from the website of the Argentine Presidential Office
During the Winter Olympics, Chinese leader President Xi Jinping met with President Fernandez, and the two countries jointly issued the Joint Statement on Deepening the China-Arab Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road". Joining the Belt and Road Initiative is of great historical significance to Argentina.
For most of china's friends, Argentina is an unfamiliar country. Located in the south of South America, Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world with a population of 45 million. Historically, Argentina was ruled by Spanish colonizers for hundreds of years, and after declaring independence in 1816, it came under British political and economic control. At the same time that British colonists occupied Hong Kong, they also invaded and occupied the Malvinas Islands in Argentina and imposed a huge debt burden on Argentina. After the 19th century, the United States adhered to the Foreign Policy of the Monroe Doctrine, regarded Latin America as its sphere of influence, and constantly interfered in the internal affairs of Latin American countries, and Argentina was inevitable. Since the 1930s, legitimate democratically elected government has been disrupted by U.S.-backed military coups, and tens of thousands of dissidents have been killed or disappeared.
But the Argentine people never gave up the struggle for liberation and independence. Argentina-born Che Guevara led Cuba's revolutionary war and nation-building, and the Justice Party and Peronism founded by Juan Perón played a central role in the domestic class struggle, representing the first left-wing government of the 1940s that was widely supported by the people and still leads the Argentine people. Entering the new millennium, justice parties have been in power for most of the time and are supported by the people, being an active force during the "golden recovery" of left-wing governments in Latin American countries, playing a key role in advocating for regional and international development cooperation in the countries of the global South.
Like other Latin American countries, Argentina has historically been exploited and plundered economically by Western colonizers. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's book "The Cut Blood Vessels of Latin America" tells how the old colonists brutally plundered the gold, silver, minerals and crops of Latin America, and how neo-colonialism after World War II strangled the national industrial development of Latin America through free trade, loans, railways, conspiracies and violence, and how modern civilizational means such as investment, technology, economic assistance, joint ventures, financial institutions, and international organizations continued to suck blood from Latin American countries that had gained political independence through investment, technology, economic assistance, joint ventures, financial institutions, international organizations and other means of modern civilization. The situation described in his book is also well understood in Argentina.
Argentina is facing a debt crisis in recent years. Western international development agencies, represented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have provided Tens of billions of dollars in loans to Argentina, but the arrangements for these loans make it clear that their original intention was not to help the Argentine country develop and the people live and work in peace and contentment, but to allow the developed countries in the West to control the Argentine economy more closely.
In Particular, in June 2018, the IMF struck a $50 billion loan deal with former Argentine President Mauricio Macri's neoliberal pro-American government, an amount of more than 10 percent of Argentina's GDP, 40 percent of the IMF's total loans at the time, and the largest in IMF history, in exchange for Argentina's "deep economic reforms" and "restrictions on government spending."
With the support of neoliberal governments, financial power did not advance the country, and most of the money was put into the pockets of a few rich people and fled to financial paradise (most of it flowed to the United States), accelerating inflation and currency depreciation. As a result, poverty has increased rapidly and people have been devastated.
Subsequently, the IMF, led by new CHIEF Executive Cristallina Georgieva, issued a statement saying macri's government had not met any of the targets set for lending, thus imposing tougher international restrictions on Argentina. This has left the country in a debt trap – according to the IMF arrangement, Argentina is obliged to prioritize the payment of endless interest arising from huge debts, rather than using fiscal revenues to develop people's living standards, peace and prosperity.
As Vijay Prasad of the Institute of Social Studies of the Three Continents said, the developed countries of the West lend the Argentine people their own money in the form of debt and dictate to the Argentine domestic affairs. Economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out that the IMF's lending arrangements have not brought construction results to Argentina, but have enriched the rich and have had a negative effect on the Argentine economy. The IMF's main task was supposed to be to provide hard currency loans to countries facing balance-of-payments problems, but ironically, paying huge debts to the IMF has become a major risk to Argentina's balance of payments.
On January 28, Argentine President Fernandez announced that Argentina had reached an agreement with the IMF on a debt refinancing program of about $44.5 billion.
Argentina's left-wing government is actively reducing the size of its debt and looking for new ideas and partners for development. For Argentina, the Belt and Road Initiative represents an opportunity to break out of the vicious circle of debt and restart the momentum of development. In 2021, despite still being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Argentine government managed to achieve nearly 10% economic growth, raising the incomes of ordinary workers and reducing poverty. Argentina's leaders are well aware that in order to achieve sustainable development, the country needs to invest in infrastructure, develop modern agriculture, develop technology, expand exports, create jobs, and maintain financial stability, not let a small group of the rich people make a windfall.
The Belt and Road Initiative can help Argentina achieve national development, and China's investment in Argentina in energy, food and infrastructure construction is increasing, and Argentina is happy to see investment from China. Argentina currently exports only 11% of its goods to China, compared with several other Latin American countries such as Brazil (33%), Peru (28%) and Chile (39%), Argentina has great potential to export goods to China.
Latin America has been seen as America's backyard for more than a hundred years, but in recent years it has been clearly felt that the political climate in Latin America is shifting. Not only is there a communist socialist Cuba, but Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile and other countries are currently in power left-wing parties, and Brazil's left-wing leader Lula da Silva is also likely to be elected president this year.
These countries have the potential to form an economic zone independent of the West, and these left-wing countries attach great importance to relations with China, Nicaragua "broke diplomatic relations" with Taiwan last year, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile and other countries have joined the "Belt and Road" initiative, Brazil is also highly concerned about the "Belt and Road" initiative. As the second largest country in Latin America, Argentina officially joined the "Belt and Road" initiative, marking the continuous strengthening of China's influence in Latin America and the increasing recognition of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Western propaganda claims that China is only concerned with obtaining goods and raw materials from Argentina, but the truth is very different. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, $23 billion worth of investment will be used for domestic infrastructure development in Argentina. In addition, Chinese companies have experience in financing infrastructure projects and technology transfer in Argentina: in the past 15 months alone, Chinese funds have supported the renewal of the Belgrano Cargas and the expansion of the Atucha III nuclear power plant, worth nearly $13 billion. In 2019, Chinese money and technology helped Argentina build the largest solar power plant in Latin America, the Kochari Power Plant. This kind of cooperation is clearly different from the Western countries that put the country in the trap of non-development. Chinese investment has directly improved the living standards of the Argentine people and promoted the development of the country.
In addition to economic cooperation, China strongly supports Argentina's claim to the Malvinas Islands, helping to end old colonial relations and develop a more democratic world.
At the end of the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Fernandez, The Argentine ambassador to China Niu Wangdao told President Xi with Chinese: "Without the Communist Party, there would be no New China." "As an Argentine scholar living in China, I can feel that Ambassador Niu Wangdao's words are from the heart. The Chinese Communist Party is leading the fastest and largest process of social, political and economic development in history. In the process of becoming a socialist modern power, China has also sown the practice of win-win cooperation through international dialogue, mutual respect and friendship. I hope that the Belt and Road Initiative will promote equal and fruitful cooperation between Argentina and China, help Argentina develop its economy, improve the well-being of its people, bring about a renaissance for the country, and seek a fairer and more shared future for mankind.
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