Don\u2019t Cry for me \u201cArgenchina\u201d: Unraveling Political Views of China through Legislative Debates in Argentina

Francisco Urdinez,Pedro Feliú Ribeiro,Jan Knoerich

doi:10.1007/s11366-016-9450-y

Francisco Urdinez, Pedro Feliú Ribeiro + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-016-9450-y

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Abstract

This study seeks to explain the profound discord currently observable in elite political discourse on Chinese investments in many host countries. Using Argentina as a case study, a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis was employed to analyze parliamentary speeches on a controversial space-monitoring station built there by China in 2015. The study finds that the competing discourses about China in Argentinean politics draw primarily on locally embedded contexts and the region’s particular historical experiences and geopolitical position. These local narratives are used in different ways by both sides of the debate to support contradicting positions on relevant issues. Questions of regional hegemony, center-periphery relations, national autonomy as well as Peronist and anti-Peronist ideologies are being drawn on by elite politicians in an attempt to cope with the deep uncertainty about what China’s increased engagement means for the country and to compensate for the lack of predictability about China’s behavior in its future role as a major global power. Ultimately, however, Argentina’s elite politicians end up in a dilemma in which these narratives and historical memories can be spun in both ways to either support or reject a controversial investment project to go ahead on domestic soil that is, at the same time, a symbolic test for the potential depth of the future relationship with China.

Highlights

In December 2014, the Argentinean Senate approved an agreement on cooperation between Argentina and China on the BConstruction, Establishment, and Operation of a Chinese Deep-Space Monitoring Station^ in the Argentinean Province of Neuquén
The agreement to build this station immediately generated a lot of criticism from politicians, journalists, and academics, who raised concerns about issues such as the possible military use of the facilities, the magnitude of the tax breaks granted to the Chinese, the limited access granted to Argentine scientists and its alleged level of secrecy
Afterwards, we describe our methodology and we proceed to disentangle the embedded perceptions of Chinese investments in political debate

Summary

Introduction

In December 2014, the Argentinean Senate approved an agreement on cooperation between Argentina and China on the BConstruction, Establishment, and Operation of a Chinese Deep-Space Monitoring Station^ in the Argentinean Province of Neuquén. It was set within the framework of the Chinese Moon Exploration Program. As a growing global power with leadership ambitions, China started developing programs aimed at exploring the Moon and other celestial bodies, Mars in particular To this end, China established the so-called China Deep Space Network, a series of monitoring stations in order to support various space missions as the planet rotates. The deal generated so much opposition from the press, academic circles, and public opinion in general that it ended up being cancelled. This background suggests that Chinese investments might inspire certain concerns that Western investments do not, but what are these concerns ?

Literature Review

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