Trump’s negative Latin American agenda will help China

(Photo: Martin Mejia – AP)

Here’s a major world event that went almost unnoticed in the heat of the 2016 U.S. elections, and that may make big headlines in 2017: China’s renewed push to increase its presence in Latin America.

While President-elect Donald J. Trump is pushing a negative agenda for Latin America — vowing to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, re-negotiate or scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and kill the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal with Asian and Latin American countries — China is happily seeking to fill the vacuum of constructive U.S. policies in the region.

In mid-November, while the U.S. was consumed by Trump’s November election victory, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Ecuador, Peru and Chile. It was the Chinese leader’s third visit to Latin America since taking office in 2013.

So far, Xi has visited 10 Latin American countries since he took office three years ago, almost as many as the 11 made by President Barack Obama during his eight years in office.

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