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In Latin America, carrots trump sticks – and China knows it
Beijing is gaining ground in America’s own backyard, a neighbourhood that US administrations past and present have long neglected.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with Chinese President Xi Jinping after a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 13.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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In 1823, US President James Monroe fired off a warning that the US considered the Western Hemisphere as its sphere of influence and that it would view any foreign interference as a hostile act. The Monroe Doctrine, enunciated in his annual message to Congress, was directed then at European colonial powers.
Some 200 years on, the irony is that a new power – China – is making inroads into the region notwithstanding that foreign policy declaration.
