Argentine President Milei's Visit to China is Truly "Full of Twists and Turns"

The itinerary for Argentine President Milei's visit to China is still undecided. To put it simply, President Milei's plan for a visit to China has indeed been "full of twists and turns": Initially, at the end of last year, President Milei himself stated that he would visit China in January this year to participate in the China-CELAC Forum held in China. However, in reality, we did not have any plans to hold this forum in January; it is expected to occur in the spring.

Soon after, the news released by Argentine media and embassies changed to indicate that President Milei planned to visit China in April. But as April approached, the situation changed again, and Milei's visit was postponed to May....

Now it seems that May is also in doubt: Argentine newspaper "La Hornaja" revealed that the visit in May might be by the Foreign Minister instead of President Milei, and it is still uncertain whether the Foreign Minister can actually make the trip; another media outlet, "Mendoza Online," quoted informed sources saying, "The visit to China is definitely going to happen, but the timing is still uncertain, possibly at the end of the year"...

Milei's plan for visiting China keeps changing and being delayed. On one hand, this may be related to scheduling issues, and on the other hand, it may indeed be due to significant recent pressure from the United States. Recently, Blinken visited Argentina and criticized China, demanding Argentina stop its currency swap agreement with China.

This agreement is crucial for Argentina's economic stability, and Argentina certainly did not agree, but according to "La Hornaja," "in private conversations with reporters, the Argentine government acknowledged that the pressure from the United States is immense—although this is not the first time, as the U.S. has repeatedly blocked Chinese investments in military, logistics, and communications equipment in Argentina—this time the impact is particularly significant." The report suggested that the U.S. "hopes Milei will join its plan to isolate China in Latin America."

However, Argentina's problem lies in its strong dependence on both China and the United States: on one hand, Argentina's most important export product, soybeans, has a very high reliance on the Chinese market, and the currency swap agreement between the two countries is also crucial for Argentina's economic stability; on the other hand, Argentina also hopes to gain support from the United States to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, not to mention the U.S.'s geopolitical and military influence in Latin America.