Xi Jinping Holds First-Ever Meeting with ‘Pragmatic’ Javier Milei x/@OPRArgentina

President of Argentina Javier Milei met with Chinese communist dictator Xi Jinping on Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Milei and Xi reportedly addressed a “packed agenda of common interests” during the meeting.

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The meeting was one of the most highly anticipated for Milei during his visit to Brazil given his aggressively anti-communist stance both prior to entering politics and as president. The libertarian economist regularly asserted that he would not do business with communist states, including China, though he allowed for individual Argentines to partake in private business with Beijing.

According to Argentine outlets, high-level Argentine government officials participated in the roughly 30-minute economic and political meeting with the Chinese delegation. The meeting took place in the late morning hours of Tuesday at the Sheraton hotel in Rio de Janeiro, where Xi and the communist regime’s delegation are staying “under strict security measures.”

The office of the Argentine presidency published a picture of the meeting on social media.

During the exchange, Xi reportedly extended a formal invitation to Milei to visit China, to which the Argentine president reciprocated with a similar invitation for Xi to visit Buenos Aires.

“These visits will be carried out in terms to be agreed upon by both Foreign Ministries,” the Argentine government told local outlets.

The Argentine outlet Infobae described the encounter as a “pragmatic” turn for Milei, a staunch anti-communist who repeatedly asserted during his presidential campaign that he would “not do business with communists.” Following his meeting with Xi, Milei and his delegation reportedly met with International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva.

According to Infobae, Milei’s pragmatism with China is a “direct consequence” of the advice of his Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Argentine Central Bank director Santiago Bausili. Due to the disastrous administration of Milei’s predecessor, socialist former President Alberto Fernández, Argentina was left severely starved of foreign currency and on the verge of a complete economic collapse by the time Milei took office in December 2023.

Fernández, a pro-China President, had Argentina sign a $5 billion currency swap deal with China in November 2022 that was expanded to $6.5 billion in mid-October 2023. China reportedly froze the deal shortly after Milei took office, but resumed it in June.

“The President knows about the economy and finances, and Caputo and Bausili simply explained to him that without a Chinese swap everything could get complicated in the markets. Milei understood the issue and, appealing to realpolitik, made a 180-degree turn,” Infobae stated. “From that moment on, Milei, Karina Milei, former Chancellor Mondino, Werthein, Caputo and Bausilli dedicated themselves to oiling diplomatic ties with Beijing.”

Infobae claimed that Xi is “already aware of Argentina’s needs” and in return has a long list of “geopolitical objectives” that he intends to attain since the times of the previous administration of Alberto Fernández and Mauricio Macri.

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Some of the items on “Xi’s ambitious list,” Infobae detailed, include hydroelectric dam projects in southern Argentina, a nuclear power plant China sought to build in Buenos Aires in 2022, a deep water port in the Tierra del Fuego region, participation in Argentina’s communications sector, access to Argentina’s copper and lithium resources, and control of a waterway that would grant China leverage in the region’s grain trade.

“The pressure is constant, and at a certain point, Xi gets what he wants. The communist leader can offer financial assistance —a swap— huge markets — for chicken or soybean giblets — and support in international organizations such as the IMF,” Infobae reported.

Earlier in November, Argentine Ambassador to China Marcelo Suarez Salvia claimed that despite Milei’s fierce opposition to communism, he does not seek to have Argentina decouple from China entirely.

The Argentine president was initially expected to travel to China in January 2025 to participate in a summit bringing together China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional bloc. According to Infobae, Milei will not participate in the summit as he does not want to meet with the region’s dictators. Instead, Milei’s prospective visit to China will be postponed until mid-2025.

The outlet further claimed that Milei will raise to China the need to expand the country’s commercial markets and the importance of maintaining the free availability of the multibillion-dollar swap deal.

Following his meetings with Xi Jinping and IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, Milei met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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