Seminar: China and Latin America: from Cyberspace to the Farm Gate

Professor Adrian H. Hearn (University of Melbourne); Dr Ariel C. Armony (University of Miami/University of Pittsburgh); chair: Dr Paulo Drinot (UCL Institute of the Americas)

China’s growing influence in Latin America is evident in the growth of bilateral trade to $240 (£143) billion in 2013, and a new wave of investment announced during Xi Jinping’s July 2014 regional tour. Alongside mining and energy, agriculture has become critical to Sino-Latin cooperation, driven by unprecedented demand for food as Chinese cities progress toward the target of one billion residents. Chinese acquisition of Latin American land for food production has proven more contentious than investment in other primary sectors, mainly because of local suspicion of Chinese state-owned enterprises. In Brazil, which provided 45 per cent of China’s 2013 soybean imports (amounting to 33 million metric tons worth $17.2 billion), President Rousseff has warned that ‘inane xenophobia’ may ward off Chinese investment.

This presentation examines Latin American perceptions of deepening Chinese trade and investment. It combines three sources of data: online commentary associated with news about Chinese influence in the region, responses to the 2013 Americas Barometer survey, and ethnographic information from the rapidly expanding soybean plantations of Brazil’s Matto Grosso and Cerrado Savanna regions. The combined data reveal ambivalent reactions to Chinese engagement with the region, from optimism about new economic opportunities to a deepening trend of anti-Chinese sentiment. We compare and contrast these reactions to the longer history of U.S. involvement in Latin America.