Judging from recent actions, the answer to that question is “yes.” Despite President Javier Milei’s “apologies” to China for the gross insults he hurled at it during his election campaign, threatening to break off relations because Xi Jinping was a “communist” and an “assassin,” Milei’s Foreign Minister Diana Mondino has added insult to injury with her Dec. 26 meeting with Taiwan’s representative in Argentina Miao-hung Hsie, which has infuriated the Chinese. Keep in mind that Mondino is a neoliberal economist, banker and professor at the University of Chicago-linked private CEMA university, who possesses no qualifications to be Foreign Minister. She revealed her doltish character in her recent statement that “the BRICS really aren’t that important,” but just a group of countries that meet because they have shared interests, and that it would be “a distraction” for Argentina to join since it has so many other important things on its agenda.
Ms. Miao-hung Hsie is apparently a big fan of Milei. She showed up at his headquarters on election night Nov. 19 to congratulate him and has subsequently appeared in public with other government officials; however, her meeting with Mondino was never made public until now. As reported by Ambito Financiero the Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires issued an angry statement on social media two days ago, reiterating that Taiwan is an “inalienable part of Chinese territory and the Taiwan matter is completely an internal one for China. The key to maintaining peace and stability in the Straits is to defend the One China principle.” Mondino is claiming that she never met with the Taiwanese representative and was scheduled to meet yesterday with Chinese ambassador Wang Wei to do damage control.