Weekly Report - 19 October 2023 (WR-23-42)

President Boric was visiting China, his first official trip to the country since taking office in March last year, to attend the Chile Week China trade fair – a series of trade promotion events in different cities – as well as to participate in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, focused on China-backed global infrastructure projects. He taught a class at Sichuan University in Chengdu, before inaugurating the trade fair, also in the capital city of Sichuan province, on 14 October, and visiting the technological centre for agricultural innovation. Boric subsequently held private meetings with President Xi, Premier Li Qiang, and the chairman of the national people’s congress, Zhao Leji.

Boric was following in the footsteps of a succession of Chilean heads of state who have sought over the years to promote different themes in the relationship with Chile’s top trade partner. The list includes Ricardo Lagos (2001, promoting Chilean agri-food exports), Michelle Bachelet (2017, cooperation with Belt and Road), and Sebastián Piñera (2019, technology and telecommunications). The main thrust of Boric’s visit this week appears to be a determination to diversify the trade relationship and make it less dependent upon copper.

The latest available data (from 2001) shows that bilateral trade in that year stood at US$63.4bn, with Chile exporting US$36.6bn and importing US$26.8bn. Chile’s exports to China were largely dominated, however, by copper ore, amounting to US$20bn. Copper has been Chile’s top export to China for more than a decade. Chile is the world’s second largest lithium exporter after Australia and is facing a challenge from currently third-placed Argentina.

In a joint communiqué with Xi, Boric invited Chinese companies to participate in new areas such as developing the country’s lithium mining industry and green hydrogen projects. Boric used the trip to announce a decision by China’s Tsingshan Holding Group to build a US$233.2m plant in Chile to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) for electric vehicles. The plant will create an estimated 668 jobs and fits well with the Boric administration’s aspiration to move further up the mining value-added chain. The deal includes provisions to train Chilean technicians.

Boric has a reputation for speaking out on human-rights issues, and on insisting that they should always take precedence over any ideological affinity. While he has openly criticised repression in Nicaragua and Venezuela, however, he seems to have chosen a more discreet narrative in the case of China, which does not take kindly to any perceived external interference in its internal affairs, given the strategic nature of the trade relationship.

While both governments are opting for pragmatism, Beijing clearly remembers the 2022 report published by Bachelet, the-then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which said China had abused Uighur communities in the Xinjiang region and may have committed crimes against humanity.

Although Boric did publicly criticise human rights in China when he was a member of congress, as head of state he has remained silent. Interestingly, two prominent members of the Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh) formed part of Boric’s entourage for the visit to Beijing: the minister secretary general, Camila Vallejo, the official government spokesperson, and Karol Cariola, a former student activist and member of the lower chamber of congress.

Before departing for China, Vallejo said human-rights issues would be raised with the Chinese government in private and not through public declarations, while insisting that “this does not mean it is being omitted or [Boric] doesn’t want to broach the matter”.

Foreign policy

In response to the Israel-Gaza crisis, Chile has condemned acts of terrorism and called for an end to the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians, a position not too far off China’s own stance calling for a cessation of hostilities. On Ukraine, however, the two countries are clearly on opposite sides with Chile condemning aggression by Russia, a close China ally.

Fernández visits China

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández also set off for China, like his Chilean counterpart, on 12 October. Fernández was visiting in order to attend the Belt and Road Forum, but his last significant international trip before transferring power on 10 December also had another priority: securing a new currency swap deal. Argentina’s peso has been haemorrhaging value in recent days as electoral uncertainty heightens and the central bank (BCRA) has been burning through scant reserves to try and prop it up. The BCRA announced on 18 October that China had agreed to make available US$6.5bn through a currency swap line, US$1.5bn more than Fernández had initially requested.

Divisions over 18-O

Partisan politics remained at the forefront as Chile marked the fourth anniversary of the ‘social explosion’ that broke out on 18 October 2019 (known as “18-O”). Some 200 people demonstrated in Santiago; 20 were arrested after clashing with police. There were also at least two cases of attempted looting.

The day before in congress, right-wing opposition parties tabled resolutions describing the protests four years earlier as an “explosion of criminality” and even as an attempted coup d’état. Left-wing supporters of the government accused the opposition of trying to re-write history. In their eyes, despite “excesses”, 18-O was a social upheaval that opened up a legitimate and necessary debate on constitutional reform.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 906 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial