Wende, M: China‘s Economic Expansion in Latin America

While the United States and Europe see themselves faced with a moral and economical depression resulting from the repercussions of the global financial crisis and consuming conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, China on the other hand continues to grow double- digitally. Also, with more than $2.85 trillion in foreign reserves in 2010, the Asian nation is the envy of most Western countries in debt-ridden times which could not be more favorable for the solvent Chinese. As a result, the People‘s Republic appears on the world scene with a newfound confidence and as a giant empire, which is less reluctant in the exposition of its position and powers. On the other side of the world from China, Latin America represents the last of the untapped global markets for the Chinese. All but invisible in Latin America, China now builds the worlds largest industrial port in Brazil, funds the repair costs of almost all railway lines in Argentina and donates a multi-millions dollar worth soccer stadium to Costa Rica. It achieved to supplant the United States to become the biggest trading partner of Chile and of Brazil, South America‘s largest and most rapidly growing economy in 2010.