Latin America's China Strategy Needs an Overhaul
Especially in Brazil, savvy local leaders have an opportunity to turn Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to their advantage.
Late in September, as the novel coronavirus ripped through Latin America, the government of Sao Paulo state signed a Hail Mary agreement with Chinese biopharmaceutical lab Sinovac Biotech Ltd. The Chinese company teamed up with the biomedical research center Butantan Institute to develop a vaccine for the contagion that by last week had already killed 200,000 Brazilians. Providentially, the Coronovac shot, which cleared clinical trials last week but whose ultimate efficacy rate remains a matter of debate, is now expected to become part of the go-local treatment, in Brazil and beyond.
This local Chinese medical diplomacy reflects Beijing’s broader prescription for conquering the international marketplace. Instead of pinning its foreign policy and global outreach solely on bilateral pacts, Beijing has encouraged mainland companies, cities and provinces to prospect for subnational clients and partners across the Americas.
China began diversifying its stakes within targeted frontier markets in the early 2000s, partly to court new customers, partly as a political hedge. Latin America’s dysfunctional autocrats inadvertently hastened the trend by invoking central fiat to expedite Beijing-backed projects, only to see many go awry due to cost overruns, environmental hazards or labor unrest, according to a recent report by Margaret Myers of the Inter-American Dialogue.