Argentina’s yuan lifeline sign of brinksmanship between China, US

Buenos Aires has been looking for ways to safeguard its dwindling dollar reserves and has found a willing partner in China. “ allows companies from the People’s Republic of China an opportunity to develop an investment flow based on the yuan,” Massa said in June in Beijing. “And it enables Argentina to not only use it for commercial and foreign exchange investment flows but also as a mechanism for the central bank in all kinds of investments.” Since then, about 500 Argentine companies have already started to pay for Chinese imports in yuan, according to Argentina’s customs agency. During an April visit to Buenos Aires, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman weighed in on Argentina’s ongoing negotiations to buy Chinese fighter jets versus American ones and a possible deal for nuclear production, all the while warning that China is seeking to “undermine democracy”. “I don’t think that the move that Argentina is making should be interpreted as defying the United States, but to the contrary, in a context of profound internal and external weakness,” said Moretti, who is writing his dissertation on China, “it could be seen as a strategy to have more autonomy, or a deepening of our dependency” because Argentina “doesn’t have the autonomy to be able to make strategic decisions for the long term”.