Security & Strategic Review - August 2005

President Hu Jintao's tour of Latin America in late 2004 and the accompanying signing of multi-billion-dollar letters of intent, plus the much-heralded oil deals with Venezuela - a key supplier to the US - has produced great demand, particularly in the US, for expert assessment of what China's rapidly growing involvement in the region portends. Scholarly and congressional papers present an array of interpretations that range from the highly alarmist to the surprisingly comforting.