China’s embassy in Buenos Aires issued a scathing attack on U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for his remarks in a Bloomberg-TV interview charging that China was guilty of “rapacious” agreements with African countries, “marked as aid,” forcing them to “give up their mining rights to China” and saddling them with debt “guaranteeing that future generations are going to be poor and without resources.” Following his April 14 meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei, Bessent told Bloomberg he wanted to help Latin American countries (like Argentina) avoid these types of agreements “any more than already has [happened] in Latin America.” He also said Argentina should terminate its $18 billion currency swap with China’s central bank, by paying it back with larger foreign currency reserves expected to flow into the country, as a result of its neoliberal reforms and more foreign investment.
China’s Embassy in Buenos Aires immediately responded to these “malicious, slanderous” comments in an official statement the same day, charging that the U.S. is trying to “sow discord in Sino-Argentine and Sino-African relations,” while noting China’s role in promoting development among the countries of the Global South “without political conditionalities.” If the U.S. prefers a different path, the embassy said, “at least it should abstain from obstructing or deliberately sabotaging the aid that other countries offer to the developing nations of the Global South. Nor should it sacrifice the wellbeing of the people of these nations to serve its egotistical geopolitical interests and defend its own hegemony.”
