The engagements between the militaries of China and Chile are already quite frequent.

In 2004, Chen Bingde, who was commander-in-chief of China's Jinan military region at the time, visited Chile and inspected the Chilean Ground Force Warfare Academy and Campaign Tactics Training Center. In May this year, Chilean air force Chief Ricardo Ortega visited Beijing. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Jeria had visited China one month earlier.

China has been placing emphasis on its relations with Chile because of its economic and political strength relative to other Central and South American countries. By demonstrating the benefits of the China-Chile relationship, Beijing hopes to influence those South American countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan to switch allegiance.

China signed a free trade agreement with Chile in 2006 and surpassed the United States as Chile's top export market last year. In 2007 Chile's exports to China exceeded $10 billion, with copper the main China-bound export item.

China also has an eye on Bolivia's rich natural resources, and relations with that country have been warming. In early 2006, while still the president-elect, Bolivia's current President Evo Morales visited Beijing and invited China to jointly develop Bolivia's natural gas reserves. Bolivia is the second-largest producer of natural gas in South America and has confirmed reserves of 1.38 trillion cubic meters.

Around the same time the international intelligence community began to speculate that China planned to sell Bolivia portable HY5A surface-to-air missiles. In 2007 China transferred 42 vehicles to the Bolivian military free of charge, including 34 trucks, five passenger buses and three crossovers.

In recent years, political and military cooperation between Bolivia and Venezuela has been very close. On May 22, 2008, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation. Both consider themselves ideological allies of China.

China has been trying to win over Argentina since 2004. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the country that year, and China announced it would invest $5 billion to develop crude oil in Argentina. Soon after that China began military overtures to the country as well.

In May 2007 Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan visited Argentina and signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation. China began to supply military trucks to Argentina free of charge at that time. It seems that China's military penetration of South America invariably started with the provision of free military trucks.

Argentina also expressed an interest in acquiring China's Z-9 serial helicopters and in reinforcing cooperation with China on the exploration of Antarctica. China has also been assisting Argentina in training military commanders.

To sum up, China is now actively striving to acquire oil and natural gas resources in Central and South America. It is accomplishing this through the sale of weapons, with the added advantage of strengthening its political and military influence in the region, particularly among left-leaning regimes.

--

(Andrei Chang is editor in chief of Kanwa Defense Review Monthly, registered in Toronto.)