China begins charm offensive in South America amid controversy over Amazonian railway
China begins charm offensive in South America amid controversy over Amazonian railway
  • Korea IT Times
  • 승인 2015.05.20 19:51
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his wife Cheng Hong arrive in Brasilia on Tuesday Photo: Xinhua /Landov / Barcroft Media

Plans for a controversial 3,300-mile railroad linking the continent's Atlantic and Pacific coasts are expected to be announced by Li Keqiang, the Chinese prime minister, during an eight-day South American tour.

Mr Li arrived in Brazil on Monday with around 120 Chinese business leaders and is due to lunch with Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president, on Tuesday at Oscar Niemeyer's spectacular Itamaraty Palace. Mr Li is also set to announce tens of billions of pounds of investments during the visit.

"I expect to deepen political trust and economic cooperation with Brazilian leaders with a focus on industrial capacity, equipment manufacturing cooperation and infrastructure construction," he told reporters after touching down in Brasilia alongside Cheng Hong, his wife.

Top of their agenda will be the so-called trans-Amazonian railroad which would link Rio de Janeiro's Atlantic coast with Peru's Pacific coast, cutting through remote areas of rainforest that are home to a wealth of biodiversity as well as numerous indigenous tribes. Mr Li is expected to announce a feasibility study for the megaproject during his trip.

China hopes the railway will help reduce the cost of transporting essential commodities such as soya and iron ore out of Brazil's inaccessible agricultural and mining regions and into Chinese factories and homes.

"The project seeks to lower transport costs of Brazilian products to China. It also would fit into China's plan to export globally its expertise on high-speed railways," the People's Daily newspaper said.

• How China grew desperate to conceal its power from the world

However, the railway is also expected to face fierce opposition from environmentalists and indigenous activists who are already reeling from the construction of the world's third largest hydroelectric dam near the Amazon city of Altamira.

Critics say the Belo Monte dam in Brazil's Pará state has robbed indigenous communities of their lands and fuelled violence and prostitution.

Dilma Rousseff hopes to sign 30 agreements with China (AFP/Getty)

Dilma Rousseff, whose approval ratings have collapsed in the wake of a major corruption scandal at Petrobras, the state-controlled oil giant, and what could be her country's worst recession in 25 years, hopes to sign 30 agreements with China, mostly related to infrastructure and logistics, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo, a leading newspaper.

Those deals would help stave off the threat of government "paralysis" that some believe could follow a R$70bn (£14.8 billion) budget cut that is set to be announced later this week.

Chinese state media has made no secret of the fact that Li Keqiang will find his Brazilian hosts in a vulnerable state. An opinion piece in the China Daily said Brazil was "being rocked simultaneously by environmental, political and economic crises". "Li's visit provides Brazil with timely opportunities. It desperately needs to upgrade its infrastructure, whose deplorable condition results in inefficiency, uncertainty and prohibitive transportation costs within the country," it argued.

After three days in Brazil, Mr Li will travel to Colombia, Peru and Chile, the other stops on his four-nation tour. The trip underlines China's growing role in a region long considered the United States' backyard. In January, Xi Jinping, China's president, vowed to invest $250 billion in the region over the coming decade in return for access to Venezuelan oil, Brazilian iron ore and Peruvian copper.

• We should welcome China – it is the future

"It is natural for China and Latin America to partner up," Xinhua, China's official news agency, said in an editorial this week. Xinhua rejected US discomfort at Beijing's footprint in the region. "Such finger-pointing is groundless. China harbors no intention to rival anyone in Latin America; its partnership with the region is not directed against any third party."

Questions remain over the viability of the trans-Amazonian railway which would slice through some of South America's most remote and inhospitable terrain.

Nearly half a century after Brazil's military dictatorship bulldozed a trans-Amazonian highway through the jungle, much of the 2,485-mile road remains a muddy track that is impassable during the rainy season.

There are also doubts about how much of the promised Chinese investment will materialise. "Lots of previous deals never went beyond the signing," Miriam Leitao, a respected economic commentator argued in a column titled "Chinese money won't solve all our problems".

"We need to control the euphoria. No single country is big enough to solve all of Brazil's problems on its own," she added. Sergio Amaral, a veteran Brazilian diplomat who runs the China-Brazil Business Council, insisted the Chinese had come to pursue concrete deals.

"This is not a meeting for simply swapping name cards," he told O Globo, Rio de Janeiro's leading broadsheet.

By Tom Phillips, Beijing / The Telegraph


댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트