Discussion Questions
Digital Resources
Discussion Questions
- What are some other examples of nations shifting political influence using economics?
- Was Soviet doctrine giving military aid to nations they wanted to influence more or less effective than economic aid? How about for China?
- China and Latin America are all spending a lot of money transporting goods, experts, and workers across the ocean. Do you think this is a good use of Chinese resources compared to economic aid like loans?
- How are natural resources flowing out from Latin America? Is it going to the US? China? In what proportions?
- What methods as America taken to protect it’s own personal interests in the region? Is the methods similar?
- What makes American interest in the region matter? Think of this from a non-US perspective. Yes, if a war breaks out, and American lives are hurt, this is obviously a direct reason, but in a time of peace, why should America counter influence?
- (Similar to question 6) Is it a net benefit for Latin American countries to ally with China of the US? Does it matter? Why?
- How far do you think China will expand their influence in the Global South?
- What other countries (not China/US) have influence/interest in the region? How have they been affected by this shift in allegiances?
- Politics is messy. Economics are messy. It is, however, a necessity to function in modern society. Do you think that China is exploiting Latin America, who historically do not have as much industrial development as US/China, to sell communism? Do you think that America is doing the same thing to sell capitalism? Is this a moral right in the 21st century that accounts for the sovereignty of Latin American nations?
Digital Resources
Post links to at least five high-quality digital resources related to your project. Include a sentence describing each resource. Format in Chicago bibliography style.
- https://chinaglobalsouth.com
The China Global South Project is a highly technical news source detailing Chinese movement in the global south. Specifically, this new source tracks Chinese movement in areas like Asia, Africa, and South America and reports the actions that the CCP is taking to better educate readers. - https://www.cfr.org/
The Council on Foreign Relations is a US-centered news source that explores how various nations affect foreign policy interests that America has. While this source doesn’t focus just on China (Like the CGSP does) it does mention China a lot and talks directly about Latin America often. - https://www.elnacional.com/
El Nacional is a Venezuelan news source that explores various topics in Venezuela but also Latin America. As a Latin American news source, it provides great information on the same news topics covered by Chinese and Western sources but in a Latin American voice. This source also talks about both US and Chinese topics often, and can show readers how the tone of the population of Venezuela changes with each topic. - https://thedialogue.org/
The Dialogue is a multi-national DC-based think tank source that focuses on inter-American success and highlights the challenges facing the economies and democratic sentiments of various American nations (including Latin America). As a source, it does have US bias, but it can help highlight American thinking and reasoning exceptionallyhttps://www.scmp.com/ well. - https://www.scmp.com/
The South China Morning Post is interesting as a new source. While it faces pro-Beijing influence from China, it still has often a neutral if not slightly Chinese biased views on most topics (with the bias becoming sharper the more contentious the topic is). However, this source provides a good review on how China views specific events throughout Latin America.