'Latin America must change its relationship with Beijing'

The political scientist Ramiro Podetti says the region cannot be a simple supplier of raw materials to the Asian giant and points to te hneed to consider the Asia Pacific region as a whole. South America as a mediator between China and the US in a new world order. A global battle is underway in the field of technological innovation and the entertainment industry.

Buenos Aires (AsiaNews) - For three decades he has been studying the development of political ideas in Latin America. Ramiro Podetti, Argentine political scientist residing in Uruguay, dean of the faculty of humanities at the University of Montevideo, spoke to AsiaNews about the relations between China, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin American countries.

What is your view of China's growing presence in Latin American markets?

From a purely commercial and investment point of view, Beijing's presence is welcome. However, no one in the region is capable of standing up to the Asian giant. The country that is paying the highest price for this, is Brazil, because it is losing market share to Chinese industry. So, Brasilia faces the dilemma of whether to return to being an economy based on the primary sector or to insist on its industrial project.

Argentina does not perceive China as a threat, because it is already a "primary" economy. And the other nations of Latin America, which have no industry, will have no problem adhering to the Chinese policy, based on the exchange of manufactured goods for raw materials.

Do you see a change in preferences in favour of China and at the expense of traditional relations with the US?

The problem for Latin America is not having to choose between China and the United States, but rather what kind of relationship we will establish with Beijing. Do we want to have the same relationship with the Chinese as we had with Britain in the 19th century? Although there was some absolute wealth in the region at the time, in relative terms the industrialized countries grew 50 times as much: that kind of relationship with the British impoverished us.

What type of relations with China would you see as favourable?

An economic policy based on the production of raw materials is unacceptable. The equation must change, with Latin American countries becoming value aggregators. It is necessary to reject, at the cost of war, an economy centred on the sale of raw materials (which favours China). But we must bear in mind that the emergence of the Asian economic power is nothing new; it started about 40 years ago. What’s new, and we need to pay greater attention to this, is that for the first time the West is being challenged by a non-Western power: The Asia-Pacific region.

Do you suggest looking more to Asia Pacific than to China?

They are two different phenomena. Today it’s as if the West were dazzled by China, but Beijing has very serious problems in Asia-Pacific. An example of this is India's refusal to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

It is impossible to understand how China affects Latin America if we fail to consider what is happening and what the reconfiguration of global power will be like, which has only two alternatives. One, with enormous weaknesses, is a new cold war, but with China and not with the Soviet Union. The other, more reasonable, is that the United States agree to review the world order, becoming primus inter pares, in agreement with the emerging Chinese superpower and the top three big powers: Russia, Europe and India. This is what Alberto Methol Ferré, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samuel Huntington imagined.

What would be the role of Latin America in this scenario?

South America could be an intermediary between the great powers and the rest of the nations. Only Brazil and Mexico are capable of taking on a leadership role, but so far they have failed to understand this. It is difficult to lead South Americans. No one is encouraged to take action. We are very strange types. We are not old colonies or an empire. We're kind of an inexplicable mixed race. The only reason we are not in the places where decisions are made is because we think we are incapable.

Is the Chinese initiative to have a scientific-military base in Latin America of concern?

It's natural. It is an emerging superpower, as such it not only considers its commercial needs, but also its projects from the point of view of the balance of world power. This includes a military dimension, but not only that. The "soft-power" instruments are more important than the observatory they have installed in southern Argentina. I think the chances of an armed conflict between great powers are very low, but if it does happen it will not be resolved so much in the military sphere, as in that of technology and the entertainment industry.

The military question can still give us some headaches, but the real battleground is technology (such as 5G), and other things in which China is still far behind, such as the communication of its cultural values, which are different from those of the West, or the 'entertainment industry.  Video games are educating children under 15 all over the world and have a very important impact on their education. The most ferocious of social Darwinists would be scandalized by the values that prevail in the culture of video games today. For example, Japan is a power in this area. Attention must be paid to forms of soft power. This is where the global battle will be fought.