A Song of Ice and Fire by China to the US under the Trump

Beijing is trying to steal from American influence in many parts of the world, after Mr. Trump announced withdrawal from the multilateral trade relations.


Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Reuters

After Donald Trump became the US President-elect and vowed to withdraw the country from the Agreement Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well as forcing Asian allies to increase defense spending, China appears as are opportunities to take advantage of broad impact across the globe in order to fill the power vacuum left by the United States, according to the SCMP.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will host the conference "A belt, a path" in Beijing next year, with some 30 heads of state in attendance, no less scale recently held G20 summit in Hangzhou, the source close to Beijing revealed.

He considered the American Tap to focus on solving internal problems after divisive elections in history as an opportunity to promote initiatives aimed their geopolitical expansion of Chinese influence throughout every corner of the world.

In the Asia - Pacific region, his main motivation was the initiative Class "A belt, a path" with the participation of 65 countries, spread over Southeast Asia, South, Central and West Asia to the Middle East, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe back up.

Professor Wang Yiwei, international research expert at Renmin University in Beijing, said that policies in favor of domestic protectionism of Trump, but typically denounce TPP, would be the golden opportunity for his initiatives Tap "fill the gaps in the market."

"In the long run, countries around the world have followed the standards and development models of the US. But now America has suffered the consequences of its own system," Wang said. "Americans do not draw lessons from the financial crisis, not self-regulation and industry reform, but they are blaming global problem".

Mr. Wang said that the initiative "belt, the path", China has become increasingly stronger resistance at risk due to his administration Trump and anti-globalization trend in the West poses. "This initiative is designed to counter the threat posed by Western markets caused," the professor said.

Last year, China has invested about $ 14.8 billion to 49 out of 64 countries along the Silk Road, accounted for 12.6% of total overseas investment of Beijing, according to data from the Ministry of Trade China.

Reaching Latin America


Mr Xi at the meeting of Economic Cooperation in Asia - Pacific, 2014. Photo: Xinhua

In the Latin America region, China is also stepping up efforts to increase its influence. After a visit to the South American country last month of Mr Xi, the Chinese government issued a policy document 11 pages long, stressed the "new era" in relations between China - Latin America, according Mcclatchydc.com .

The former official said that the US and the Latin American policy of "retreat" of US trade in this region in the long term could jeopardize Washington's efforts to improve relations with the countries in the Western Part bridge.

"The ground was clearly shifting under our feet," Eric Farnworth, a former US State Department official, vice president of the National Council of the Americas, said. "China is playing royalty in Asia - Pacific, including in Latin America. Meanwhile, many countries recognize the US is to withdraw".

The US withdrew from the TPP is a major topic of a meeting on the sidelines of the Asian Economic Cooperation - Pacific which took place in Peru. This event is also regarded as a parade of Xi in Latin America, traveled to Ecuador for three countries, Chile to Peru to discuss the strategic partnership new.

According Farnworth, Mr Xi has been the Latin American business leaders standing ovation when speaking at a conference on the role of trade and investment. Xi did not mention Mr. Trump, but his speech expressed a clear intention that the Chinese were ready to jump in.

"China will not shut the door to the outside world, which will open it wider," he declared before the set business leaders attending the conference.

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said that although Latin America has no strategic importance to China as South Asia or East Asia, Beijing still want to reach this area to open wide political influence as well as search for resources such as oil, copper, iron ... for giant economy around.

"China is becoming increasingly dependent on the outside than 10-15 years ago," Shi said. "Latin America has a lot of resources that China coveted".

China is the largest trading partner of the region Monday. They import 40% of world soybean sales and purchasing country's third-largest iron ore Latin American countries, according to the Council of Hemispheric Issues.

2015, China for Latin American countries to 29 billion USD loans, more loans from the World Bank (WB) and the Development Bank of the Americas (IDB) combined, according to the University of Boston.

Kevin Gallagher, a professor at Boston University, said that Mr. Trump has elected a new impetus for China to promote their chosen direction for almost 5 years. "China has a long-term vision. They need a lot of natural resources to provide more than a billion people, and can find the steel, oil, soybeans in Latin America. The Chinese are obviously very fond of soy "Gallagher said.

Cause doubt


US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: AP

However, the ambition to reach out to every corner of the world China has also faced skepticism from many developing countries as well as other large investors, such as India and Japan, the intention their real strategy.

Many infrastructure projects that China built overseas, such as energy exploitation projects and resources in Africa, has faced violent protests by local residents. They said that China is seeking to exploit the resources of their countries, not bring any benefit to the local labor in the construction of this water by pouring capital.

Canada and Britain, the two major partners involved in the project Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated by China as part of the initiative "A belt, a road", is also increasingly doubt that Beijing is seeking to expand geopolitical influence through this project.

Zhang Jianping, a policy specialist at the Institute for International Economics, China, said that this skepticism is the major obstacle for Beijing in the process of reaching global influence.

Former ambassador Jorge Guajardo Mexico in China is that China is not the perfect answer for the Latin American region, by the region will not find many new opportunities in the Chinese market.

But one thing can not be denied is that the tone and threats of trade have spawned Trump pressing for major US partners, increasing concerns about political risk when paralleled the United States under a new president, a chance for China to participate in the process of building its influence in the region.

"We just want to carry out commercial activities. So when America turned away and threatened to destroy everything, it will cause great damage," Guajardo said. Thank you for leaving valuable comments