Javier Milei need only lean out the window of the presidential palace in downtown Buenos Aires to be confronted with Argentina’s ties to China.
About a mile distant on the banks of the River Plate stands the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China building, a towering monolith emblazoned with the ICBC logo that dominates the capital’s skyline.
It’s a symbol of how deeply entrenched China is in Argentina’s economy.
Milei, a libertarian economist with little political experience, rode to victory in last year’s election promising to tear up Argentina’s old ways to tackle its endemic failings.
That included curbing longstanding ties with China. “Would you trade with an assassin?” he asked then.
In the four months since entering the pink-hued presidential palace known as the Casa Rosada, he’s devalued the peso, announced 70,000 state job cuts, and done away with price controls. He’s embraced the US and courted former President Donald Trump.
Yet with annual inflation at a vertiginous 276%, he hasn’t followed through to downgrade China ties.
Trade relations between China and Argentina haven’t changed “one bit,” and he has no intention of touching an $18 billion currency swap with Beijing, Milei says. A joint space station with China that the US has warned against “isn’t a problem.”
“We have always said that we are libertarians,” Milei told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in an interview yesterday. “If people want to do business with China, they can.”
To some extent, it’s a recognition of fact: Chinese trade and investment now drive large swathes of Argentina’s economy, in commodities, energy and banking.
But Milei’s approach also shows that despite his carefully crafted image as a wild man, the self-styled anarcho-capitalist has a pragmatic side.
It’s a reminder that all politicians are forced to bend to reality once in office, whatever they tell voters beforehand. — Alan Crawford