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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Thursday, November 10, 2011

China is buying up Argentina


Standard Bank Argentina is now owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
Communist Party owned state companies are buying Argentine farmland, mineral rights and banking services.

The Road to Serfdom Series
"China's steps into Argentina are slow but firm."
  • Argentina is becoming a "Food Colony" of China.
  • China is buying up Argentine natural resourses for shipment back to China
  • Argentina has the #3 gas shales deposits in the world  -  China wants them.

Big Brother is coming to South America in the form of the Chinese Communist Party.  The Communists are buying virtually everything they can get their hands on.  Oil, gas, assorted minerals and crops are being sent back to China from their new "Colony" of Argentina.

China is ramping up investment in Argentina to secure natural resources to feed its growing economy and snare sales opportunities for its emergent manufacturing industry.

With limited land and resources at home, China is turning to the world for raw materials to feed the factories and its growing populace, reports Market News International.

Argentina was China's second biggest destination for investment in Latin America last year, with $5.6 billion flowing in compared with $9.6 billion to Brazil, according to the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The spending pace has continued this year.
  • $3.5 billion going to Argentina 
  • $8.6 billion in Peru
  • $9.9 billion in Brazil
About 90% of the total was in natural resources, according to ECLAC.  

Chinese Communist Party owned companies
are buying up farmland and mineral rights
in Argentina's Rio Negro Province.

"China wants to produce raw materials in Latin America and process them in China," Sotuyo said. "It is buying land in Latin America."

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in April submitted a bill to Congress designed to limit foreign ownership of rural land to 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres).

The bill, not yet approved, proposes limiting total foreign ownership to 20% of productive land. Foreigners now own an estimated 11% of productive land, according to the Argentine Agriculture Federation, a leading farm group.

There are concerns that the foreign purchases were for drinking water rights, as the region is known for large deposits of water. Famous athletes, actors and businessmen like Joe Lewis and Ted Turner have bought land, capturing media attention including for allegedly limiting access to rivers and lakes on their land.

China is seeking other avenues, such as by teaming up with local companies, said Gabriel Perez, who owns Mercampo, an agriculture consulting firm in Rosario.

Sending Argentine food to China

"In Africa, the strategy is to buy land. But in Argentina, they are forming associations that allow them to grow crops and guarantee food supplies for their population," he said.

Heilongjiang, a northeastern province of China, last year signed contracts for it to invest in developing fields in Argentina's southern Rio Negro province, in exchange for rights to buy the harvests. It will work with farmers there on the project.

Heilongjiang, source of 11% of the food produced in China, will work on the project through Beidahuang Group, a state company.

It plans to invest $1.5 billion to expand the San Antonio Este port and put in irrigation systems over an area of 300,000 hectares in the Rio Negro and Rio Colorado valleys, which unlike in the country's farm belt in Buenos Aires province, Cordoba and Santa Fe require irrigation for crops like corn and soybeans, and less so for fruits and vegetables.
Communist Party owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) are buying up Argentine oil and gas reserves.

China buys oil, gas, iron ore and banking services in Argentina  

Communist Party owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) this year bought the Argentine assets of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum for about $2.5 billion.

The purchase made Sinopec the fifth-biggest oil producer in Argentina and followed a deal to buy a 40% stake in Repsol's Brazilian upstream unit for $7.1 billion.

It also followed a move by state owned China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) and Argentina's Bridas Energy Holdings to seek the purchase of 60% of Pan American Energy from BP for $7.1 billion. Pan American is the second biggest oil producer and third for natural gas in Argentina.

China is looking abroad for oil and gas reserves to offset declining output at home. South America and Africa are showing promise for oil and gas production growth, with Argentina estimated to hold the third largest resources of shale gas in the world after China and the United States.

Mining and fertilizer are other focuses. Beijing-based China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a state-owned mining company, has invested about $100 million in an iron mine in Rio Negro, pulling the mine out of a 14-year slump to restart shipments.

In August, China's biggest commercial bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, agreed to buy an 80% stake in Standard Bank Argentina for $600 million from the South African parent company.

"China's steps into Argentina are slow but firm," Mercampo's Perez said. "We will see more investment."

Chinese Communist Party owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China now owns Standard Bank Argentina.  Using the new bank as a front China is now providing banking "services" in Argentina as one more way to gain influence and control in the nation.

For more on this story

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The Road to Serfdom Series

The world is moving toward a modern form of Neo-Serfdom where everyone works for the all-powerful State or businesses controlled by the State.  A world where individual property rights and economic freedom do not exist. 

FREEDOM IS VANISHING:   What happens when the major employers are owned by government backed investment groups, or your food comes from government owned farms, or your news is delivered by so-called "private" corporations but are in reality connected and interconnected to governments?

George Orwell had a name for it:  Big Brother.

Please check out other stories in our Serfdom series.

THE FEDERALIST - "Corporations use Global Warming to steal land."

THE FEDERALIST - "China wants to buy a huge chunk of Iceland"

THE FEDERALIST - "China to buy up Australian farmland"

THE FEDERALIST - "Brazil takes action to protect their farmlands from foreigners"

THE FEDERALIST - "Saudi Arabian "Food Colonies" in Argentina"

THE FEDERALIST - "China buys oil fields in Texas"

THE FEDERALIST - "America is committing suicide - The Road to Serfdom, Part IV"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part III"

THE FEDERALIST - "Benito Mussolini was right"

THE FEDERALIST - "The Road to Serfdom, Part II"

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