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China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics – review
In China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics, Chris Alden and Álvaro Méndez examine Latin America and the Caribbean region’s interactions with China, revealing how a complex, evolving set of bilateral economic and political relations with Beijing – from Buenos Aires to Mexico City – have shaped recent development. Mark S. Langevin contends that the book is a noteworthy contribution to an understanding of China’s footprint in the region but does not offer a robust framework for comparative analysis.
China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics. Chris Alden and Álvaro Méndez. Bloomsbury. 2022.
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China and Latin America offers a thoroughly researched account of China’s economic and political impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Alden and Méndez pivot on China’s centuries-long presence in LAC to weave an analysis of trade, investment and migration patterns, detailing a thick description of economic and political relations with the region’s governments and stakeholders. Their historical examination and assessments of national government responses to China are appropriately framed by the unfolding geopolitical rivalry between Beijing and Washington. The book details China’s underlying logic and overwhelming importance to LAC, providing a valuable contribution to the growing literature assessing Beijing’s role in the region’s economic development and international relations.
China is not new to LAC; its longstanding ties with the region provide an economic and social foundation for the massive trade and investment flows in recent decades.
In the introduction, Alden and Méndez remind readers that China is not new to LAC; its longstanding ties with the region provide an economic and social foundation for the massive trade and investment flows in recent decades. In chapter one, the authors tell an intriguing story of China’s dependence on “New World silver,” European and LAC elite thirst for Chinese-produced silks and ceramics during the fall of the Ming Dynasty in the seventeenth century, and the enduring impacts of the flow of indentured Chinese workers to the region in the eighteenth century. Accordingly, Chinese working-class immigrants settled in “cities like Lima, Tijuana, Panama City and Havana…” providing a human bridge to China while suffering through waves of xenophobia and anti-Chinese repression. China and Latin America documents the economic and social linkages tempered through centuries-long trade, investment and migration – a neglected foundation for understanding LAC’s economic development in recent decades.
The book raises several leading questions. In the introduction, Alden and Méndez explore the “interests, strategies and practices of China,” questioning whether Beijing’s approach to LAC is similar to its role in Africa (14). They ask what motivates Beijing’s interests in the region and how LAC governments, firms and social actors have responded to China’s “deepening economic and political involvement in the region” (15).
Although the book is thick on economic and historical detail, its thematic analytical framework does not guide comparative explanation within LAC and across developing regions, including Africa.
Although the book is thick on economic and historical detail, its thematic analytical framework does not guide comparative explanation within LAC and across developing regions, including Africa. Alden and Méndez offer three “broad themes” for narrating their analysis: development, agency and geopolitics. These dimensions can guide examination of Beijing’s underlying logic and regional economic and political relations but are insufficient to explain the variable regional results that could stem from Chinese policies, trade and investment or even geopolitical endeavours. Consequently, Alden and Méndez emphasise “diplomacy and statecraft” and “sub-state and societal actors” as conceptual references but without the formal specification for selecting cases, testing explanations and comparing outcomes at the national and regional levels.
For example, the book explores several groups of Latin American nations and case studies of Brazil and Mexico. Chapter three’s treatment of Chile, Peru and Argentina, chapter four’s analysis of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and chapter seven’s assessment of Central America and the Caribbean reflect similar patterns of development and diplomacy. However, these chapters do not present a systematic comparative analysis between these cases. Moreover, the authors’ slim selection method excludes Paraguay and Uruguay without assessing these nations’ participation in the Common Market of South America (Mercosur) along with Argentina and Brazil. Indeed, Uruguay’s recent proposal to ditch Mercosur and negotiate a bilateral trade treaty with Beijing makes it an interesting case for comparison with Mexico, given its longstanding ties to Canada and the US through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its successor pact (USMCA).
In chapter four, Alden and Méndez explain how the “sustained rise in commodity prices” – much of it fuelled by Chinese demand – “enabled these governments to seek rents from export tax revenues and direct them toward development and social programmes,” an approach the authors associate with “neo-extractivism.” Accordingly, the so-called Bolivarian republics of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia sought to replace their dependency on the U.S. with China. Beijing embraced the opportunity, but the growing Chinese footprint “obscured the commercial intent and practices pursued by Chinese firms” (103). In response, these nations’ governments grappled with increasing Chinese debt, among other externalities brought by Chinese firms, including the “willful neglect of the concerns of local communities, environmentalists and labour activists.” Indeed, as the authors point out, even Beijing grew weary of the region’s “high expectations” and the growing “costs of entanglements” (104).
The book’s treatment of Venezuela is pivotal because it details the most extreme case of commodity export dependence and debt-trap diplomacy in the region.
The book’s treatment of Venezuela is pivotal because it details the most extreme case of commodity export dependence and debt-trap diplomacy in the region. This sets an analytical benchmark that sharply contrasts with Brazil’s diversified commodity exports to China and the parallel influx of Chinese goods, foreign direct investment and migrants, along with the incipient pattern of technology transfer through the localisation of Chinese manufacturing firms in Brazil.
On the energy front, Venezuela shifted to government control over petroleum production after Hugo Chavez’s rise to power in the late 1990s, while Brazil partially liberalised the sector during the same period. The authors assess China’s rise and growing demand for petroleum products but do not explain the divergent policy approaches taken by Caracas and Brasilia. Did Venezuela’s deepening authoritarianism and Brazil’s vibrant democracy shape Beijing’s approach to these countries and help determine the different outcomes in the petroleum sector, or are the differences limited to these countries’ respective opportunities for crude oil production for export? Moreover, do these contrasting policy-response patterns explain diplomatic outcomes, including Caracas’ growing distance from Washington? Alden and Méndez contribute to our understanding but fall short of a comparable explanation of Venezuela and Brazil’s two very different paths.
Chapter eight offers a vital perspective of China’s presence in LAC within the emerging geopolitical landscape that pits Washington against Beijing.
In conclusion, chapter eight offers a vital perspective of China’s presence in LAC within the emerging geopolitical landscape that pits Washington against Beijing. The authors explain China’s deepening engagements, becoming an observer to the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2004 and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2008, and President Xi Jinping’s trip to Brasilia in 2014 to attend the first Summit of Leaders of China and LAC. Xi’s confident embrace of the region did not initially spark concern in Washington, according to Alden and Méndez. However, as the authors recount, by 2018, the US National Defense Strategy Summary confirmed Washington’s acknowledgment of the strategic competition with Beijing throughout LAC.
Alden and Méndez raise a central question that should frame research and policymaking in the coming years: at what point do the citizens and leaders of LAC search for alternatives to ‘China’s dominant position in their country’s economic and political life?’
China and Latin America concludes, “No longer passive, Chinese diplomacy now looms large in the capitals and boardrooms across the region, leaving the once-unassailable US dominance scrambling to regain its standing” (175). Hence, Alden and Méndez raise a central question that should frame research and policymaking in the coming years: at what point do the citizens and leaders of LAC search for alternatives to “China’s dominant position in their country’s economic and political life?”
This post gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE RB blog may receive a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through the above Amazon affiliate link. This is entirely independent of the coverage of the book on LSE Review of Books.
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The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization – review
In The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization, Eviane Leidig examines the phenomenon of far-right women influencers who seek new recruits for white nationalism through carefully constructed online presences. Drawing on three years of digital ethnographic research, Leidig paints a captivating and concerning picture of how these influencers create networked intimacy through social media platforms, writes Nadia Karizat.
The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization. Eviane Leidig. Columbia University Press. 2023.
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“…Far-right women are marketing themselves in their most authentic and accessible form while promoting a hateful ideology…A central component of this success lies in the visibility afforded to these far-right women influencers on social media platforms…” (15).
The networked nature of social media platforms has been used by many social movements over the years, such as those that aim to spread content and raise awareness for social justice through hashtags, retweets and links to direct action (eg, Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Zionist Jewish and Black Lives Matter activists). Through the sharing of videos, text and images on social media, efforts are made to bring ideological shifts in the ways society thinks about issues such as police brutality, settler-colonialism, etc. On the flip side, social media platforms are also used by nefarious actors who aim to recruit members and disseminate information for the goals of white supremacy and preservation of so-called Western exceptionalism. In The Woman of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization, Eviane Leidig describes the behaviours and practices of far-right women influencers on social media platforms (eg, Instagram, YouTube), observed over three years of digital ethnographic research where Leidig fully immersed herself into the online worlds of these women and their followers.
Eviane Leidig describes the behaviours and practices of far-right women influencers on social media platforms (eg, Instagram, YouTube), observed over three years of digital ethnographic research
Early on, Leidig distinguishes the terms alt-right and far right (although the application is inconsistent throughout the book); she states she uses the term alt-right to refer to a specific political scene in terms of time and place within the broader far-right movement (ie, North America between 2016 and 2019), or in reference to an individual infamous for their leadership within the alt-right (eg, Richard Spencer). Alternatively, the term far right is used to signal “ideological beliefs and practices that remain constant” within this broader movement and context.
The Far-Right movement is characterised by a preoccupation with nativism, extreme nationalism, and authoritarianism with a growing trend of organising around antifeminism and anti-Islam in the hopes of protecting the “good” (white) family
The Far-Right movement is characterised by a preoccupation with nativism, extreme nationalism, and authoritarianism with a growing trend of organising around antifeminism and anti-Islam in the hopes of protecting the “good” (white) family in a “good” heterosexual marriage with children that practice “good” traditional (white) western values. What makes the alt-right unique to other movements within the far right, according to Leidig, is how integral technology has been to its development. This motivated her investigation into alt-right American and Canadian social media influencers to understand how they use social media and its affordances for the promotion of and recruitment into a hateful ideology.
Leidig positions far-right women influencers as the “exception” within a more male-dominated movement.
But, why the focus on women? Leidig positions far-right women influencers as the “exception” within a more male-dominated movement. Yet, she is careful to situate their existence as part of a sustained history where women have been both subjugated within the far-right world view – where whiteness and maleness hold power – while also contributing to the dissemination of its ideology and propaganda. For example, she discusses Lauren Chen, a biracial woman, as a far-right influencer of colour who “supports structures such as white supremacy if it promotes their self-interest.” And so, we see through examples such as these how those with identities that would hold positions with little power in a far-right utopia take advantage of the visibility and microcelebrity-based power accessible within the movement through strategic use of social media.
Instagram stories – posts that do not appear on one’s main Instagram feed and disappear after 24 hours – allow for an influencer’s audience to send direct messages, participate in polls, respond to Q&As or send reactions (eg, a heart icon) and creates a sense of closeness between audience and influencer.
In Chapters Two through Five, Leidig discusses these practices by far-right women influencers through the lens of “networked intimacy”, referring to techniques (eg, social media behaviours, self-presentation strategies) that help to establish a sense of connection between an influencer and their audience with an aura of authenticity and relatability. An example of this Leidig describes is how ephemeral Instagram stories – posts that do not appear on one’s main Instagram feed and disappear after 24 hours – allow for an influencer’s audience to send direct messages, participate in polls, respond to Q&As or send reactions (eg, a heart icon) and creates a sense of closeness between audience and influencer. Leidig argues that this is a strategy of networked intimacy where the possibilities for “direct interaction…offers unfiltered radicalization and recruitment possibilities between far-right women influencers and their followers.” Similarly, far-right women influencers may share curated ‘vulnerable’ content related to seemingly non-political experiences, such as dating experiences or financial advice, that are embedded with subtle far-right messaging but ultimately work to draw-in an unsuspecting audience who then witness the influencers’ political content posted alongside the “not (blatantly) political.” In this way, through strategies of networked intimacy and taking advantage of the visibility and potential for reaching new audiences on mainstream social media, far-right women influencers rely on mainstream social media platforms to retain notoriety and normalise far-right ideologies.
Leidig envisions coordinated responses from governments, civil society and tech business – both online and offline – that may help to counter the far-right movement and prevent the dissemination and uptake of its ideology.
Towards the end of the book, in Chapter Seven, Leidig envisions coordinated responses from governments, civil society and tech business – both online and offline – that may help to counter the far-right movement and prevent the dissemination and uptake of its ideology. For example, in her discussion on efforts from tech companies to counter the far-right, Leidig discusses content moderation approaches with what she refers to as the “Four D’s of content moderation”: deplatforming, demonetization, deranking, and detection.” Leidig argues that deplatforming, which is when a social media platform shuts down an account associated with a certain user, is “an effective strategy that places priorities of victims over that of perpetrators while significantly limiting the influencers’ reach.” Through deplatforming, far-right influencers lose their ability to network intimacy with a receptive audience on a given platform.
Leidig briefly discusses offline efforts, such as civil society and governments working to provide social support that addresses issues such as income inequality, that can help make people less susceptible to buying into the propaganda of these influencers. However, she does not delve into many specifics beyond calls for countering far-right narratives (eg, via counter-influencers online) and valuing the grievances of those who do feel left behind by society. Rather than be prescriptive with solutions, in this last chapter, Leidig imagines many different stakeholders and organisations coordinating responses to reduce the influence, and thus power, of the far-right. It is for us readers and those with positions in power to decide what we do next.
Leidig paints a captivating picture of how far-right women influencers spread and recruit individuals to their movement, with complex messaging around antifeminism, islamophobia, a white racial identity and “western” values.
All in all, in The Women of the Far Right, Leidig paints a captivating picture of how far-right women influencers spread and recruit individuals to their movement, with complex messaging around antifeminism, islamophobia, a white racial identity and “western” values. By keeping her analysis grounded within social media platforms, we understand how the goals of these influencers are made achievable thanks to the features and visibility afforded to them by technology. And as a result, we – the everyday tech user, scholars, designers – are forced to grapple with the many potentials of technology for spreading hate, as well as calls for justice.
This post gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE RB blog may receive a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through the above Amazon affiliate link. This is entirely independent of the coverage of the book on LSE Review of Books.
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