BUENOS AIRES — As the coronavirus crisis threatens to overwhelm health care systems and devastate fragile economies across Latin America, China — where the deadly pathogen first emerged — now wants the region to see it as the hero, not the villain, in the fight against the pandemic.
Whether China’s plan will work is another story.
With the United States and European countries preoccupied with their domestic efforts to curb the outbreak, Beijing has supplied Latin American nations with planeloads of medical supplies, teams of experts and scores of photo ops for overwhelmed local leaders.
Mexico, which will need to wait until the end of April to acquire 1,000 ventilators that President Trump set aside Friday, was set to receive 200 such machines as early as this week as part of what Chinese state media billed as an “air bridge” between the countries.
Argentina took delivery Saturday of a 14-ton shipment of surgical masks, early-detection kits, biohazard suits, thermometers, gloves and goggles flown in on a 60-hour trip from Shanghai. The supplies arrived on the heels of a donation of similar size.
As Argentina awaited 1,500 ventilators promised by China, Foreign Minister Felipe Sola was happily tweeting out pictures of flag-adorned shipping boxes along with a translation of the accompanying slogan: “Brothers must be united.”
In Europe and much of the developing world, China’s charm offensive has sparked sharply divergent responses. Some countries have welcomed the aid and praised the giver, while others have complained about sometimes substandard equipment, heavy-handed propaganda and Beijing’s failure to offer substantial help in one critical area: debt relief for countries that have borrowed heavily from China in recent years.
Even in Latin America, the record has been uneven. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his aides have echoed U.S. complaints about China’s failure to contain the pandemic in its early stages, and Chinese diplomats say they are bypassing the president to work with more sympathetic governors in the country.
China’s economic clout also can’t be discounted, even in Brasilia. Even before the coronavirus crisis, some 19 Latin American nations had signed on to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure financing plan. Even Mr. Bolsonaro in recent days has signaled that he still hopes to boost Brazil’s sales to China’s vast meat and soybean markets.
It is clear that Latin America, where the COVID-19 outbreak has yet to reach its peak, will need help for a good while to come. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are predicting sharp economic contractions for the region this year. The recession is expected to be even bigger than for the global economy as a whole.
The visibility of such sales and donations clearly makes for “cheap advertisement” that Beijing hopes will safeguard lucrative trade and investment ties it has built in Latin America, said scholar Benjamin Creutzfeldt, drawing parallels to other disaster relief packages in the past.
“It always has very prominently printed on [it], ‘Gift of Germany,’ ‘Gift of the U.K.,’ ‘Gift of USAID,’” said Mr. Creutzfeldt, a nonresident fellow at the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute. “In a way, the Chinese have learned from the best: the West.”
Implicitly or explicitly, the Chinese gestures of goodwill do come with strings attached.
“They’re not afraid, even in the midst of this, to pressure and say, ‘[From us] you can get it,’ when it comes to any question of their one-China policy or obligations countries have toward Beijing,” he said. “It’s somewhat utilitarian and strategic.”
‘Concrete’ response
But dissecting Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s motives is a luxury the region cannot afford in the middle of a public health crisis, said Enrique Dussel Peters, who leads the Center for China-Mexico Studies at Mexico’s National Autonomous University.
In his dash to procure medical supplies, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reached out to Mr. Trump, Mr. Xi and European leaders, Mr. Dussel Peters said.
“But beyond judging whether that’s good or bad, only China responded in concrete terms,” he said. “Mexico is very grateful it can get, weekly, hundreds of tons of supplies critical to prepare for the expected peak” of COVID-19 cases.
The need for supplies, it turns out, is so urgent that Peruvian authorities were considering buying up an entire field hospital used this year during the height of the outbreak in Wuhan, China.
“Remember the 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days?” Health Minister Elizabeth Hinostroza said in El Comercio newspaper. “Through our embassy, we’re looking into the possibility of acquiring it.”
Aside from Mr. Trump’s Friday approval of the ventilator sale to Mexico, the United States has been far less visible in its attempt to limit what analysts have dubbed Beijing’s “mask diplomacy.”
While the logistical feat of a direct cargo link to China received ample coverage in Argentina, a Pentagon donation of masks, gowns and gloves barely made the news — in part, perhaps, because it was valued at a mere $60,000.
This lukewarm U.S. outreach in the region factors into Beijing’s calculus, said Christine Balling, a senior fellow for Latin American affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council.
“The Chinese are very cognizant of the fact that the American public, in terms of American foreign policy, has always looked [inside],” Ms. Balling said.
In fact, largely ceding the Latin American playing field to China is nothing new, she added.
“This has been going on for years and years,” she said. “[We’re] not focused on Latin America as a region the U.S. should be focusing on in terms of strengthening alliances and increasing a footprint.”
Soft-power fight
Nevertheless, China’s soft-power campaign is already interfering with several of the Trump administration’s stated policy goals. It has helped prop up Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and has given the World Health Organization additional diplomatic cover from Mr. Trump’s criticism.
Chinese supply shipments have given Mr. Maduro — in Mr. Xi’s words, “a good friend of the Chinese people” — a last-minute lifeline and, in turn, weakened the position of opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom Washington views as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Argentina, Peru, Chile and Mexico all have signed on to a Beijing-backed paper defending WHO in the wake of Mr. Trump’s 60-day freeze of U.S. funding. Mr. Sola said it was not the time to challenge the Geneva-based U.N. agency.
Some see a missed opportunity for the Trump administration because the saga of COVID-19, at least in theory, provides fertile ground to push back against China’s regional ambitions, said Gustavo Cardozo, the Asia-Pacific coordinator for the Argentine Center of International Studies in Buenos Aires.
“China’s image has been damaged a lot in Latin America because China has not been sincere about the coronavirus [outbreak],” Mr. Cardozo said. “And what it’s trying now is to somewhat reverse that situation.”
Praise from leaders desperate for Chinese supplies differ widely from views of everyday citizens who fear an economic meltdown will follow the lockdown.
“Politicians may paint a picture of China truly having a responsible attitude,” Mr. Cardozo said, “while public opinion, social opinion, simply says it isn’t so.”
But at least in Mexico, Mr. Dussel Peters said, the much-publicized Chinese “air bridge” will, “without a doubt, have a significant impact.”
Even if the shipments fail to win over hearts and minds beyond the political class, Beijing has little to lose because its “mask diplomacy,” as it turns out, is also good for business.
“The vast majority of these supplies are paid for,” Mr. Dussel Peters said. “It’s a purchase, a strictly commercial relationship.”
All Mr. Lopez Obrador and his Latin American counterparts need and want in this crisis, he said, is for Beijing to continue to “let them buy.”
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