Mission Impossible? Upgrading Sino-Mexican Relations

• In Event: Asian Footprints in Latin America

Abstract

In September 2017, President Enrique Peña Nieto held another round of bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the seventh such meeting since 2013, when both leaders agreed to declare the status of the Sino-Mexican relationship as a “comprehensive strategic partnership.” With Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s landslide victory in the Mexican election on July 1 2018, the Sino- Mexican partnership will almost certainly deepen further for three reasons. First, Mexico may eventually find the NAFTA is not a winning economic strategy. Diversifying trade can reduce Mexican economic dependence on the United States and their exposure to a potential global trade war. Second, López Obrador can take advantage of China’s patient capital, an important form of state-led capitalism and characterized by a longer-term horizon. Historically, Chinese efforts at major projects in Mexico have not been fruitful. Third, López Obrador can upgrade domestic infrastructure capabilities and help China to transform the traditional extractive model of investment into a more productive one, such as the green energy. However, Beijing’s formidable diplomatic challenge is how to stimulate López Obrador’s “expression of machismo” against Donald Trump’s populist attraction.

Author

• Antonio C Hsiang, Chihlee University of Technology