Can China Help Latin America Break Free from the US?

[00:00:00]Trump is launching attack after attack on left-wing Latin American governments and leaders trying to cut their commercial and economic ties to China.

[00:00:07]What does China's revolution and development model actually mean for Latin American sovereignty and progressive movements? We'll discuss this and more on this week's China Report.

[00:00:26]Welcome to the China Report. Every week, we'll be helping you sort through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country that we're taught to hate but know so little about. I'm your host, Amanda Yei. These are this week's headlines. At a two-day summit in Pyongyang, Chinese President Xiinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un celebrated what they called their unbreakable bond, explicitly pledging to revive the historical spirit of quote resisting US aggression.

[00:00:53]Marking Shei's first visit to North Korea in seven years, the meeting served as a demonstration of solidarity amid mounting geopolitical tensions, the two leaders declared a new historical stage of cooperation, vowing to reopen borders fully, resume international flights, and rapidly expand ties across politics, technology, and trade. Kim strongly reiterated his support for Beijing's one China principle regarding Taiwan. While the two leaders collectively emphasized safeguarding their shared security interests on the global stage, the visit takes place weeks before the 65th anniversary of the China DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The US just announced a bombshell, slapping Alibaba, BYD, and BU and over a dozen other Chinese companies onto its military blacklist, turning China's most beloved commercial giants into national security targets. The Pentagon expanded its Chinese military companies list on Monday, adding the ecommerce titan, EV leader, and search engine behemoth. This whining blacklist has become a tool in restricting Beijing's access to US capital, technology, and government contracts.

[00:02:07]Beijing's embassy called the move discriminatory and an overreach of national security while Alibaba while Alibaba and BU fiercely denied any military ties, vowing to sue. The designation, which bars companies from US defense contracts under new rules uh taking effect this month, arrives just weeks after Trump and she met in Beijing to deescalate trade tensions. For the first time in their lives, six children with spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA stood up from a chair thanks to a video game and a robot that fights back. SMA is a genetic disorder that progressively destroys the nerves connecting the brain to muscles, making movement, eating, and even breathing difficult or even fatal.

[00:02:51]But in a new study conducted by researchers from Behung University, Baking University, Third Hospital, and MIT, six children aged 6 to 10 wore a lightweight 2-lb robot strapped to their knees. Unlike typical assistive devices, this robot didn't help, it resisted. So each time a child kicked, the robot made this movement harder, forcing their muscles and nerves to work together to rebuild strength. After just a few weeks of playing a video game that turned this resistance into play, uh the children achieved something remarkable. They could stand from a chair without help.

[00:03:28]The study also found that these gains remained even after the children stopped using the robot and returned to conventional physio physiootherapy, suggesting that the training produced lasting improvements in neuromuscular function. China is moving to dramatically expand its maternity insurance system. A draft law just reviewed by the country's top legislature would extend coverage to include childbirth related medical costs for non-working spouses while also merging the maternity insurance fund with basic medical insurance fund for employees. The move is part of a broader push to create a more birthfriendly society and ease families financial burdens. By the end of 2025, maternity insurance already covered nearly $260 million people with the fund spending about the equivalent of 18.6 billion US last year on prenatal exams, inpatient deliveries, and maternity allowances.

[00:04:24]Traditionally limited to those in employee insurance programs, coverage is now being expanded to flexible workers, migrant workers, and people in new forms of employment. China's basic medical insurance coverage rate has remained stable at 95% for years. From the indictment against Rago Castro and the fuel blockade in Cuba to the kidnapping of Maduro in Venezuela to using the pretense of drug cartels to attack Claudia Shinbomb in Mexico, Trump has been launching offensive after offensive across the region. And while Washington ramps up threats against Latin America, China offers something different.

[00:05:01]investment, infrastructure, and an alternative story of development forged through revolution, poverty alleviation, and rural transformation.

[00:05:09]To discuss the centrality of China and Trump's pivot to Latin America, along with what China represents for the region's sovereignty and progressive movements, we are so happy to have on Stephanie Weatherbe Bridto. She's coordin co-coordinator of the International People's Assembly.

[00:05:24]Stephanie, welcome to the China Report.

[00:05:27]>> Hi, happy to be here. Yeah, we're so glad to have you. Um, well, you know, I listed, you know, all the different attacks across Latin America that Trump has been waging. The administration has pretty much been defined uh by attack after attack across Latin America. Um, I think there was a little bit of hinting of this in the uh national security strategy that they released late last year. Um, and it seems to me that right now that they they've assessed that they can't confront China militarily. And so they're trying to attack it um in other ways using Latin America. So I guess could you talk a little bit about, you know, how central is China to what's been happening to Latin America lately?

[00:06:16]I mean, I think that it's obvious that the United States is very concerned about the um about China's economic development and wants to sort of close the gap that has been created between on one side the economic stability that China has and the economic instability that the United States has. So, I don't know that their plan in Latin America, I would frame it as necessarily an attack on China. I think that and the reason I would say that is because the United States has um posited or or built a permanent attack on progressive nationalist um sovereign defend sovereignty defending uh and left governments in Latin America. That's really uh important. And I think that right now it becomes also part of a strategy to try to um basically close economic doors for China is what I think that the United States is trying to do. And I think that there's an acknowledgement from the US based on kind of the growing uh importance of the Shanghai cooperation organization and Belt and Road that they're losing that battle for now in uh East Asia and Southeast Asia, right? that it's not going to be easy or possible in the short term to uh limit China's economic influence in the Asian continent and also that there are many hurdles to do the same thing in Africa. And so what's left is trying to at the very least kind of close the doors um to China um in terms of economic partnerships and influence that it could build in Latin America. And I think that that's not just a geopolitical calculation. I think it's also economic. I think that the United States needs to retain unilateral access to uh resources in Latin America and is not uh willing to compete with China for access to those resources or for access to those markets. And so I think that right now even though there's a longer history to the US um control of economic development and economic relations in Latin America right now China is a big part of that equation too.

[00:08:41]>> Well speaking of development um you know Brazil, Colombia, Peru uh they have some of the largest economies in Latin America. They currently do a lot of trading with China and all three of them uh are having or have had elections this year. Um and in all of these elections you have, you know, a left-wing progressive candidate uh versus a Trumpbacked far-right candidate. Um >> uh Brazil's having their election in October. Peru um just had their runoff and right now um uh it's too close to call. We're still waiting on the final results. And then Colombia is having their runoff on June 21st.

[00:09:25]So what do you see at stake in these elections in terms of development and sovereignty uh between the two the candidates?

[00:09:35]>> I think it's the huge uh it's the central issue of all these electoral processes on the continent. Uh I think that we have a dispute between uh progressive more nationalist forces that want to retain some kind of control of the resources uh within their borders but are also trying to build economic policies that redistribute wealth that try to address the inequality. um and in the most aggressive stances that are trying to radically um transform the econom the you know the economic um base to try to address kind of like an old neoc colonial kind of imperialist system that still predominates. And then on the other hand we have a right-wing >> which is uh regionally connected.

[00:10:26]there's like a right-wing network that has been built um again not in recent years but for many many years with a lot of US influence a lot of US money um and that right-wing network is really advocating for this kind of very submissive relationship to the US uh based on an idea that you know partnering with the US is the most natural thing for these Latin American countries to do that the US is some kind of natural ally and that that relationship needs to be preserved at all cost and then Latin America should not be trying to pursue other economic partnerships with China. Uh again, this is very tense even for those right-wing candidates for them to pose that as a proposal. It's a lot of rhetoric actually because many of these economies actually cannot break economic uh relationships with China. um their econom you know Brazil is a great example of that uh Brazil is an exporter of raw materials and despite all the rhetoric that Bossonado um put forth of this idea that like we need to be fully aligned with the United States like when he was president uh economic ties with China were not broken because there's a huge sector of aggra business in Brazil that depends on that relationship and the United States is actually not able to absorb absorb all of that production um that Brazil has developed of these raw materials that China has been purchasing for the past so many years. And so definitely the defense of sovereignty is a central question. Um I think that the United States is clear that they cannot completely uh expel Chinese uh you know trade and interest from this continent.

[00:12:17]But I think that they want to control as much as possible and limit it, constrain it and put it within their own uh you know like have the ability to at least for example limit China's access to rare earths in Brazil um or limit China's access to oil for Venezuela. And sovereignty is a central question. Um, and I think that even though the United States has a history of intervening in elections, um, there is a an escalation, I think, at this time because the Trump administration is much more deliberate, aggressive, and kind of uh, honest about what it is doing and what it is seeking to do. I think that many of the things that this administration is doing openly used to be done much more covertly in previous administrations. And so there's definitely some meddling in these elections. I think that that's clear and I think that there's a history of that taking place, but again, this time it is really colored by that kind of economic and geopolitical battle that the United States is waging against China.

[00:13:27]>> Well, um, another thing that you've talked a lot about recently, um, is this scandal known as Honduras Gate. Uh and um you know just last month these leaked audio files revealed that the US and Israel were coordinating to return Trump pardoned drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernandez back to power in Honduras to attack other left-wing governments in the region especially Claudia Shinebomb.

[00:13:56]Um, so Trump, as he did in Venezuela, he's also using the pretense of alleged drug trafficking, uh, to interfere in Mexican affairs, threatening to send ground troops in response, uh, to these cartels. So, um, he's been waging like this offensive against Claudia Shinebomb, and you've argued that all of these attacks on her and Marina come up against the backdrop of the US, Mexico, Canada trade agreement. So, can you talk a little bit more about that and how these attacks are being weaponized to um to sort of attack uh this progressive government in Mexico?

[00:14:36]>> I mean, first I think we have to uh remember that Mexico has a tremendous economic dependency on the United States. Most Mexican uh production uh goes to the US market. And so, Mexico is in a very vulnerable position in that regard. like if it were to create some kind of like conflict or uh allow a conflict to develop with the United States, it would have like very serious repercussions for the Mexican economy.

[00:15:03]And so Mexico has to like very um carefully try to defend its sovereignty in this time while at the same time not cause a frontal conflict with the United States uh that also the United States can't afford to get into. I mean some production from China that thei when the United States in this process of decoupling has gone to Mexico and so the United States also has a dependency on Mexico. Um but at the same time uh there is an inequality of power. The United States is much more powerful than Mexico in this relationship. And I think that what the United States is trying to do is to terminally weaken the left in Mexico which is something that they have done historically. Like I think that we need to take the example of the PT. The United States actually had a very good like uh diplomatic and economic relationship with the first PT governments with the two first Lula governments with the Dilma government.

[00:16:00]They had disagreements, but it was a pretty, you know, harmonious relationship. But that didn't stop the United States from uh trying to build up a right-wing opposition to the PT that would ultimately um cause the coup that Brazil experienced in 2016. And so I think that in the same way the United States is invested in a permanent campaign to weaken Morena because it's very concerned about how Morena could over time build the kind of uh base of popular support, the kind of kind of political power to pursue economic relationships that don't depend solely on the United States. It's not that Morena is proposing that now, but the United States is trying to prevent Morena from ever building the kind of power to do that. Mexico has a very important historical nationalist current uh in its political uh landscape. And this nationalist current has never disappeared. Uh as I think many people know, Mexico nationalized its petroleum um in the 1940s. And this was a really assertive move um to counter US interests inside of Mexico and to try to hold some of its sovereignty that was stripped away during the neoliberal period under presidents that were pliant to the US. But there is a process underway to try to reconquer economic sovereignty or energy sovereignty in Mexico. And I think the United States feels threatened by that and wants to try to weaken the political base of Morena so that Morena doesn't build the power to propose things that could go in that direction. Now, one of the clauses that the United States is demanding in this trade agreement also prohibits Mexico from establishing um economic relationships with China. And that's problematic because Mexico is trying to diversify its economic partnerships. And so I think that all of that is part of a longer strategy. Yes, it affects this current trade agreement, but it's it's again Morena is a problem not just in terms of this trade agreement.

[00:18:08]>> Well, you know, you've talked a lot about, you know, sovereignty, uh, and Latin American sovereignty, which is really what's at stake here in this moment. Um, Trump's threats are not just about controlling resources, but also about destroying Latin American integration and unity. So, can you talk a little bit about like historically and today, what does China and Chinese development, what does it represent for the people of Latin America and for progressive movements?

[00:18:37]So Latin America is a continent that has been underdeveloped by the relationships that it had first with the colonial powers and then with the United States, right?

[00:18:48]uh we have not been able to develop the kind of economic autonomy and sovereignty to be able to um basically get rid of really uh problems that have been eliminated in other parts of the world like many Latin American countries still have problems related to hunger to um illiteracy to poor access to health and vaccines and so it's impossible for the continent to really eliminate that kind of inequality and exclusion if there isn't a overcoming of the model that we have now and the model that we have now is based on producing raw materials which is low value added and uh depending on selling them to partners in the United States or in Europe and now increasingly to China. So the Latin American continent needs to industrialize basically there needs to be an industrialization process. We need to develop the productive capacity of national industries and that is not going to happen in a relationship with the United States. That is not advantageous to the United States because it would it would tip the relationship of power. Latin America would have more power on the bargaining table if it didn't have such a dependent relationship to the United States. Now, currently, China has a relationship with Latin American countries that builds on this previous system because China is also buying primarily raw materials. But what China could potentially offer is opportunities in terms of investment, technology transfer, and stimulus that Latin America requires to industrialize.

[00:20:27]That is something that is yet to be seen, but it's definitely not going to come from the United States. It could come in relationship to China, but China is not playing that role in Latin America yet. What we can say is that based on the relationships that China has developed with some Southeast Asian countries, with African countries, we see an economic partner where there is more possibility to overcome the kind of economic uh setup that is still in place right now, which has no future.

[00:21:00]Well, on the question of Chinese development and progressive movements in Latin America, um I was wondering if you could, and this may be a little bit of a departure, but I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about uh the cooperation between Brazil's landless workers movement, MST, um and China, because you're in Brazil, um if I'm not mistaken. And I know MSTC sees China's rural revitalization strategy and poverty alleviation program as like kind of a source of inspiration and that there's been some sort of there's been some kind of technology transfer between the two. I know China has given MST a lot of farm equipment. So I would be really interested if you could talk a little bit more about that.

[00:21:43]I mean the biggest source of inspiration that China offers to Latin American uh countries and movements like the MST is the fact that China um carried out agrarian reform.

[00:21:56]>> Um China redistributed land. China defeated the landowning class. I mean, the Chinese revolution was waged largely against this landowning class which had for all intents and purposes enslaved or kept in very very poor conditions, most of the population. And so for the MST and for Latin American countries that are still suffering from a tremendous amount of land concentration, China is an inspiration in that regards.

[00:22:23]Then on the back of this Chinese revolution, there's been a lot of different policies for rural development that I think are really important and poverty alleviation programs that have a lot to teach the rest of the world. At the same time, what I think is really interesting for peasant movements like the MST right now is that China has developed a lot of technological capacity for agricultural production that has potential to um deal with a lot of the problems of production that most economies are dealing with. Now, China has a a variety of different institutions, universities, and companies that are devoted to this kind of like agricultural innovation. and most of their relationships to to Brazil are with Brazilian companies, not with Brazilian peasant organizations. And so the MST says, well, it's not just companies that are producing um you know that do agricultural production. It's also peasant farming. And peasant farming is much more uh you know positive in its capacity to actually feed the population without destroying the environment. And so what the MST has approached China and these Chinese institutions about is that you should be exchanging technology with us, not just with these massive companies that are actually part of the problem in Brazil.

[00:23:40]And so what the MSTC sees is that well this country that is still led by a communist party and that created agrarian reform should understand the kind of needs of building peasant power and peasant capacity. And so I think that that's been the what the MST has been trying to develop. And I think that it's been a fruitful exchange that um has a lot of promise for other countries. I think that it depends both on having peasant movements that have the capacity to learn to take these techniques to take this knowledge and apply it. But it also has to do with China's willingness to establish these relationships and to not just limit their relationships to companies, which is I think what what this kind of exchange is trying to to show is the possibility of like people-to-people development.

[00:24:30]>> All right. Well, Stephanie Weatherbe Bridto, uh, thank you so much for joining the China Report. Um, maybe to end, um, you know, you could let people know where to find your work if they're interested. Are you working on anything new?

[00:24:44]So um as you mentioned at the beginning I'm part of the coordination of the international people's assembly and I wanted to raise here that the international people's assembly is a global network of people's organizations and we are organizing a variety of different solidarity campaigns but one which is really important is the handsoff Asia campaign which is a campaign to basically um call for the removal of US military bases on the Asian continent. We think that the United States is in this process of trying to encircle China militarily to try to threaten China not just through Taiwan but through other military bases.

[00:25:21]And we think that this is something that really threatens to um you know put the world in it, you know, at the cusp of a really serious conflict. And from our perspective, it's not China that's feeding this conflict. It is the United States. And so we are opposed to these military bases and to the kind of rhetoric that the United States is fueling in countries like Japan, South Korea, this kind of animosity towards China that we think is really really prejuditial to the peace and development of the Asian continent. And so I would really recommend people to go to our website to the IPA's website which is um IPA-IP.com and look into our campaign and find ways to participate in it because right now there are many imperialist offensives happening around the world that draw our attention and that are essential such as the genocide in Gaza, the continuous invasion of Lebanon, the attacks on Venezuela and Cuba. But I think that we can't lose sight of what is happening on the Asian continent and the way in which that also is is really quite threatening and dangerous.

[00:26:29]>> All right, thank you Stephanie so much.

[00:26:32]China has shattered three Guinness World Records at once as 33,000 drones lifted off in perfect unison over Du Jangyan in Sichuan Province. In a magnificent display, the drones formed the 28 eastern constellations. They formed pandas, floating mystical islands, and they also spelled out uplifting slogans across the sky. The show set records for the most drones flying simultaneously under group control. Uh the most drones forming an aerial pattern and the largest LED mesh flying screen, uh which came out to be an a staggering 148,561 square meter flexible display suspended midair midair. So that's our show. We'll see you now every other Thursday. Be sure to become a member at breakthroughnews.org and we'll see you next time.

[00:27:40]Heat. Heat.