Strategic association with the region and the place of Argentina | 100 years of China PC

For an ancient story, like the one the Asian country is going through, 100 years of existence may seem like a sigh. However, the size of the Chinese Communist Party (it now has more than 90 million members and others on the waiting list) and its role of ideological and political support in the state, is inescapable when one thinks internal development within the Asian giant and the place it occupies on the international scene as one of the economic, military and technological powers. China’s dizzying irruption into the global economy is reshaping the world scene for decades to come. A phenomenon which, with the dynamics of technological and climatic changes, seems to define the world of the 21st century.

The CCP and the Rise of China

Since its establishment in 1921, the CCP has acquired an increasing role, becoming a decisive player in the social and political life of China. After the civil war that devastated the country and proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong in 1949, the party and state merged in order to unify their structures to promote internal order. Since then, the PPCh has taken a decisive place in the spotlight, opening a new stage in the history of the country. The “irreversible rise” referred to by Xi Jinping in his speech to inaugurate the centenary celebrations is clear proof of the recent history of the Asian country and of the challenges that have arisen along the way. The total eradication of structural poverty, strategic investment in development technologies and internal stability in the largest nation with the largest world population, undoubtedly show the party’s right role in national political life.

It’s time to tighten the ties

In recent decades, Latin America has occupied a central place in Chinese foreign policy as fertile ground for establishing itself as a strategic partner. Amid the dispute with the United States to expand ties with countries in the region, Beijing once again knocked on doors and reached out to Latin American countries when they needed it most. Since the end of 2020, when the coronavirus hit the region with more force, increasing the number of deaths and testing health and state capacities to deal with the pandemic, unlike European and American measures, China has detected an opportunity and today hui almost all the countries of Latin America inoculate their vaccines to their population. Some analysts talk about the sanitary silk road.

China’s extensive vaccine deployment in Latin America has raised its visibility and interests in the region. Beijing is struggling to gain influence beyond the economic sphere. Although Joe Biden’s government recently pledged to export 80 million doses worldwide, and to allocate the largest quantity to our region, for now the vaccines supplied by Chinese laboratories are presented as the most reliable option. As the region crosses the third wave of the covid, vaccines are becoming more urgent every day and China seems to be respecting the agreements.

In our country, Beijing’s support to cope with the onslaught of the pandemic has become one of the pillars on which the Argentine state has based its strategy to amalgamate the health consequences. Alberto Fernández, who was the only South American president to speak at the CCP celebrations, thanked Xi Xinping during his speech for “the donations and facilities for the acquisition of strategic supplies in times of scarcity” and for help “definitively with vaccines.” “The pandemic has paved the way for great solidarity between the two peoples, through donations of medical equipment sent from China and the large-scale purchase of medical supplies by Argentina through an important operation that involved more of 40 flights and agreement for 24 million vaccines from Sinopharm.

The progressive understanding in bilateral relations gave birth to a close friendship between the two peoples, which was consolidated with the signing of the “Global Strategic Association” in 2014, under the chairmanship of Cristina Kirchner and Xi Jinping. The status that China confers on our country places us in the category of association that Beijing grants to the middle-power states of the international system and opens up, for the country, a range of opportunities on issues related to development cooperation. , investments, exports and international integration. In this sense, the link between the Justicialist Party and the Chinese Communist Party is more and more fluid.

Today Argentina must strengthen its growth policies, even more after the pandemic. Reactivating the economy, creating jobs, generating real foreign currencies, protecting the environment, recovering our productive apparatus and improving infrastructure are seen as the next challenges. In this sense, complementarity with China plays a preponderant role and opens up an interesting horizon of cooperation. In this sense, President Alberto Fernández, expressed his interest in starting the negotiations aimed at Argentina’s accession to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which means a platform for more work of ‘infrastructure and better conditions for project development.

The next major goal of the CCP is estimated at 2049, when the People’s Republic of China celebrates its centenary. Para ese entonces China seguramente tenga la primera posición de la economía mundial y un PBI per cápita similar al de los países desarrollados, cumpliendo de esa manera el sueño chino de un gran renacimiento y la consolidación de una “sociedad socialista moderna”. de una “Asociación Estratégica Integral”, the importancia that China reviste para la Argentina parece trascender el plano simbólico y adjudicar a central lugar in the expansion of vínculos económicos, comerciales y culturales, lo que hace pensar que profundizar las provaciones entre naciones para the country.

It is not therefore a question of falling into the error of having to participate in a match between powers which is not ours, but rather to seek as Argentina and as a region the best opportunities to achieve inclusive, intelligent and sovereign development.

* Director of the Electoral Observatory of the Permanent Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean (COPPPAL), professor at INCAP and member of the Association for International Studies of Argentina (AERIA).