Double Handshake

A few noteworthy links from around the web (a few that I’ve had on my desk for some time now). With a little down time in the coming weeks, I’ll hopefully give a few of these stories their proper treatment. But, for now, the short list:

Bloomberg reports that newly christened 2016 Olympic city Rio de Janeiro is looking to China to help finance the its planned US$11 billion in Olympics-related infrastructure projects. (China knows a thing or two about the topic). State-owned China Development Bank loaned Brazilian state-owned oil giant Brasileiro SA US$10 billion earlier this year.

On the subject of oil, the Latin Business Chronicle republished an article from the Wharton Business School on China’s quest for oil in Latin America. Buried half-way down in the piece is a good breakdown of China’s proposed deal to buy Argentinean oil exploration and refining firm YPF for around US$17 billion – which would be the largest-ever overseas deal by a Chinese company.

R. Evan Ellis, whose book China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores has been reviewed nicely here, published another exhaustively cited bird’s eye view of what China’s presence in Latin America means for the US earlier this month for the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief.

Two of his four main claims raised an eyebrow for me: “[China] is enabling the survival and spread of regimes oriented against the United States, Western-style democracy and economic models” and “[China] is undermining the United States as a source of political and economic influence in the region, as well as U.S. options for regional engagement.” Ellis takes pains to point out that China is, of course, not directly undermining democracy and US influence, but rather propping up the economies and the political lives of leaders like Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa with its investment and trade dollars. Still, should we be alarmed or is Ellis being alarmist? Is the US’s capacity for “regional engagement” actually hindered by China’s presence or is the US simply in less of a position of power?

Chile is the only South American country to commit to its own pavilion at next year’s Shanghai Expo, spending US$6 million on construction rather than renting, according to Shanghai Daily. Fear not: Easter Island will be represented at the Chilean pavilion, as will this groan-inducing design idea:

At the Shanghai event next year, Chile will attract visitors with three special wells. People will be able to look into the wells in the pavilion in Shanghai to see scenes and hear the sounds of some Chilean cities on the opposite side of the earth.

Finally, here is a new trilingual corporate blog from the newly launched SinoLatin Capital, which specializes in China-Latin American investment deals. The blog got off to a roaring start in August, but posts have since grown a bit infrequent. I can relate. There’s more to be written about SinoLatin Capital, but for now, find some background on the company here.

So, now it’s official – Brazil will be the first-ever South American country to host the Olympic Games, in 2016. I can only imagine the parties going on now on the beaches of Copacabana…

Like last year’s Summer Games in Beijing, the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro promise to be “coming out party” for one of the world’s largest and most important developing countries. No offense to London, but 2016 stands to be a momentous occasion – beyond sporting competition – for not only a city and a country, but a continent as a whole. As an article in the NY Times earlier this week put it:

For Brazil, which has bid three times before — Rio twice and Brasília once — Friday’s vote comes after several years of economic growth and the nation’s emergence as the continent’s business and diplomatic leader. The Olympics, Mr. Osorio said, would have “a clear alignment with the country’s long-term strategy of presenting itself in the world.”

There will be much to say on the Rio-Beijing comparisons in the coming days, but for now: Enjoy the party!