The United States believes
Beijing's objective in Latin America is to boost trade and extract raw materials
to feed China's booming economy and not to influence the region's democratic
process.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said a first round of
U.S.-China talks on Latin America this month would help clarify the long-term
aims of both countries in a region traditionally considered in Washington's
sphere of influence but where China is a fast growing presence.
"China is coming in with a very specific agenda, and coming in in a way that
at least at first glance appears to be focused on identifying countries that
have what it wants and are capable of exporting it," Shannon, who oversees Latin
American affairs, told Reuters in Tokyo.
Trade between China and Latin America has grown sixfold over the past six
years as Beijing has turned to the region for oil, copper, iron and grains to
furnace its extraordinary growth.
China's massive appetite for raw materials has also driven up international
commodity prices, providing an additional boost to Latin American economies that
not long ago were battered by a tightening of global credit markets.
The government of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has travelled twice to the
region in the past two years, has promised to raise direct investment in Latin
America to $100 billion before the end of the decade.
Shannon said China's sudden interest in Latin America, a region where the
Chinese have not traditionally had a large purchasing relationship, made it
imperative that the two countries consult.
"We don't necessarily view this as a negative. Quite the contrary, this could
be a positive. It is one of the important reasons to sit down and talk with the
Chinese about this," he said.
Shannon, who took over the Latin America bureau six months ago, said the
United States had strong historical ties to the region where it had forged a
comprehensive agenda built around democracy, free markets, economic integration
and protection of the security of the democratic state.
"We have been operating in the region for quite some time," Shannon said.
He sharply disagreed with the view of analysts who consider relations between
Washington and its Latin American neighbours at their lowest point since the end
of the Cold War following the election of a string of leftist governments on the
back of popular disenchantment with the perceived failure of U.S.-led free
market reforms.
Shannon also said it was unlikely that Latin Americans, who in the mid 1980s
made the transition from military-led governments to democracies, would see
China's "peaceful rising" slogan as a model to end poverty in the region.
"I don't think the region views China as a model. Latin America is a region
that has just recently moved out of an authoritarian period. I don't think it
wants to go back," he said.
Shannon played down China's military presence in Latin America describing it
as "not extensive". He said it consisted mostly of a handful of officer training
schemes with some countries, among them Chile.
Last month during Senate Armed Service Committee hearings General Bantz
Craddock, who overseas U.S. military operations in Latin America, said Latin
military members of all ranks were receiving training in China.
Craddock said China's increased presence followed a U.S. law that mandated an
end to military training in countries that refused to exempt U.S. citizens
overseas from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"China's (military) involvement in the region is not extensive theoretically.
It could become extensive if we remain absent in several of these key countries.
To the degree that we remain present we'll do fine," he said.