Posted on 04/03/2006 8:28:12 PM PDT by jwalburg
The United States and China will talk next week about China's growing involvement in Latin America.
In the past two years China has invested billions in the region - which Washington has, up to now, regarded as its sphere of interest.
Charles Tang cuts an arresting figure.
He negotiates the uneven Sao Paulo paving stones in his well-cut pin stripe suit, tall, alert, wearing the smile of a man who believes in his vision.
Latin music seeps out from a nearby building, and Tang appears to sway in time with it, a child of the Chinese revolution who walks and thinks like a Brazilian.
He left Mao's China as a baby, went to Hong Kong, then to the US, became a banker and 30 years ago fell in love with Brazil.
He now chairs the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce, and has a direct line to the Brazilian and Chinese leadership.
He is also behind a series of initiatives which is setting off alarm bells in Washington, where increasingly China is compared to the Cold War Soviet Union.
"The Chinese government has removed 400 million people from poverty," says Tang,
"They participate in economic life and live with dignity."
"So that could be a model for Brazil?" I asked.
"Absolutely", he said. "Because that is the true victory for human rights. That's what human rights are all about."
In Tang's view, the Chinese way of doing things outstrips any formula laid down by Western democracies and the International Monetary Fund.
Chinese investment
China's economic growth, for example, is four times that of Brazil.
Since an exchange of visits between Brazil's left-leaning President, Lula da Silva and China's President Hu Jintao two years ago, Chinese money has been pouring into Latin America, transport, energy, ports, steel - all under the umbrella of a new strategic partnership.
After meeting Tang, I ended up in the Brazilian heat, shoes clogged with ploughed earth, in a field where sugar cane was being planted.
The cane is made into the bio-friendly fuel ethanol, and Tang wants to broker a deal to sell ethanol to China.
The workers there, heads covered against the sun, faces grained with a life on the land, get paid seasonally by how much they plant or harvest.
"What about the new markets in China?" I asked.
They had heard about them.
"The more work we get, the more money we earn," said one of the older men, his expression impassive.
He took off his hat, wiped his brow and stared at the ground. The others nodded.
"How many of you support Lula?" I asked.
Blank looks.
The manager escorting us nervously pushed dead cane with his foot.
Afterwards, my interpreter explained. "They don't understand politics or political systems. Most of them are illiterate.
It's extremely important that we don't let a potential enemy of the United States become a dominant force in this part of the world Republican Congressman Dan Burton
"You've got to remember Brazil is a Third World country with one of the world's widest social gaps."
The day before, in Sao Paulo, I had been sitting with Francisco Marten, a supermarket worker, whose real interest is politics.
He is a slight man who walks the pot-holed streets of his poor neighbourhood, deep in thought, head down, bag slung over his shoulders.
While we talked, children played barefoot in the road; men drank at a makeshift bar; cheers from a soccer game came over the rooftops.
Francisco was once a supporter of President Lula.
Left-leaning
Now, feeling betrayed by him, he has joined a hard left movement, the Socialist Urban Workers Party.
"What about this political mood in Latin America with all these left-wing leaders winning?" I asked.
"More of it will happen," he says. "It's about education. It is a cry from the people to invest in education so they can move on and know about their rights."
Francisco clarified two apparently separate strands - from Charles Tang and from the sugar cane workers - that have become that single thread which has made Washington sit up and take notice.
The previous week I had been in the US capital hearing Dan Burton the Republican Congressman who chairs the committee on Latin America.
He was telling me communist Chinese money coupled with the rise of leftist leaders were worrying him.
"Chavez, Castro, Ortega, Morales in Bolivia and their connection with communist China," he said. "I think we need to pay particular attention to that."
As far back as 1823, the United States introduced a policy for Latin America known as the Monroe Doctrine, decreeing that no foreign power could have more influence there than the US itself.
It was last used in earnest during the Cold War.
"Is there a line which you wouldn't let China cross?" I asked Mr Burton.
"There are already military exchanges and hardware being sold, or given, to Latin American countries," he said.
"We're watching that very closely and deciding on what we would do if and when things go too far."
He paused, then went on to underline his point.
"We should always look at Latin America in relation to the Monroe Doctrine.
"It's extremely important that we don't let a potential enemy of the United States become a dominant force in this part of the world."
I'll say.
China can afford to invest anywhere in the world they want, as they don't have to pay for much investment in their own country with everyone else doing that for them. And Latin America, with Castro and Chavez and right on our doorstep, is the perfect investment.
China is only a potential enemy if we treat it that way.
to late
How could you possibly be sure? They certainly aren't known for their fairness, even when dealing with their own people.
Every time I see that photo of the young Clintons, my stomach turns and I think:"How on earth could trash like this have been in the White House?"
China is only a potential enemy if we treat it that way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps we should treat them like friends and let them run both sides of the Panama Canal to demonstrate how much we trust them.
So the Panama Canal is gone, forever, you're saying. We're just lucky they even let us use it, huh?
100 million adults murdered, 300 million children by abortion and infanticide, hmmm, that's about right. Removed being the key word here.
Don't be surprised who and what the Dragon consumes.
And don't forget the free traitors that sold us out for their beloved God, "Lower prices to consumers".
I wonder why.
It didn't seem to cause congressional worry when slick Willie sold positioning satellite aglorithms to the Chineeeeeeze for some campaign cash.
It didn't seem to cause congressional worry when Jimmuh Cawtuh gave the Panama Canal away. All the Chineeeeeze had to do was slip a couple of Panamanian honchos a few bucks and control of that canal is theirs.
IF congress is starting to worry about Chineeeeeze influence now, (and that's a huge IF)they're only about 30 years too late.
Whatever happened to the Monroe Doctrine? The Founders really had some balls back then. Can you imagine Washington today telling Europe and Asia to stay out of the Western Hemisphere? They'd be met with guffaws.
Aw c'mon. The U.S. doesn't need Latin America. /paleo mode off
Honest to God, some people in our government really need to wake up and smell the cho tofu.. and look up the Monroe Doctrine before we are invaded by all our neighbors, with Chinese weapons, which WE PAID FOR.
China is doing to America, EXACTLY what America did to the Soviet Union. We are being very successfully contained. Encircled. Out-maneuvered. We are losing our treasure, our ability to compete and to manufacture, and our way of life. Some day we won't be able to continue to spend more on defense - but China has plenty of money - and will continue to increase their military. The most populous, arguably most industrious and increasingly most efficient technological nation on earth - will continue to become more formidable.
What happens when the day comes - we can no longer outspend the Chinese military?
Yeah, sure. We should just forget it when they threaten to nuke Los Angeles.
Then we should just forget it when they repeatedly say that we will be at war with them within 20 years or so.
Yup! Just stick our heads in the sand and nothing will ever come of it.
Yup!
Yeah, or fly EP-3's up and down their shorelines?
Bull****.
The American consumer removed those 400 million people from poverty. The "Chinese government" had very little to do with it.
It goes both ways.
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