From pivot to twirl
The Chinese leader tries a smooth move in America’s backyard
LIKE a veteran salsa dancer, Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has responded to the United States’s “pivot” to Asia with his own twirl south of the Rio Grande. A month after a re-elected Barack Obama paid calls on Costa Rica and Mexico, Mr Xi followed in his footsteps, visiting San José and Mexico City from June 2nd to 6th.
He spent the previous weekend in Trinidad and Tobago, arriving in America’s mare nostrum four days after Joe Biden, America’s vice-president. As a welcome, the 280-strong Chinese entourage was greeted with the sound of “Ah Feel to Party”, a calypso classic, and China further enhanced the mood by promising $3 billion in (unspecified) soft loans to the eight Caribbean heads of government who trailed through to meet Mr Xi. Mr Biden, by contrast, got an earful of complaints that America no longer cared about the region.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "From pivot to twirl"
From the June 8th 2013 edition
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