From Monroe doctrine to Li doctrine

How China built a Mexican power base (a reverse chronological history)

Cabo San Lucas, March 7, 2020. A record-low number of American tourists came to this Mexican resort for Spring Break. However, local hotel and restaurant owners say business has been brisk, thanks to visits by thousands of sailors from the Chinese battle fleet anchored offshore.
October 15, 2018, Mexico City. Mexican President María Vargas and her Chinese counterpart, Li Han-min, yesterday signed an agreement, which calls for greater cooperation between the two countries, including Chinese advisors for Mexico’s armed forces. “The United States has for decades pressed us to take stronger measures against drug traffickers”, said Vargas at a media conference. “Joint Mexican-Chinese military initiatives will create an effective deterrent”.
April 11, 2017, Washington, DC. The United States will be resolute in promoting democracy in Iraq, President Jack Jones declared in a speech to Congress today. Interim president Hamid al Fazawi resigned last week, following a series of bloody car-bombings. Liberty and freedom will never surrender to terror, said Jones.
November 30, 2016, Beijing. China and Mexico announced an economic agreement yesterday, during a visit by Mexican president María Vargas. Under the accord, China will invest at least $50 billion in Mexican businesses within the next five years. “These new operations will generate thousands of high-quality jobs”, said Vargas. For its part, Mexico will allow Chinese investment in specified sectors, currently subject to foreign-control restrictions.
January 26, 2015, Brasilia. United States President Jack Jones left a summit of the Organization of American States a day early, in order to return to Washington for an emergency planning session on Afghanistan, where allied troops were preparing for what some observers called a crucial battle with the Taliban in Helmand Province. In a speech before leaving, the President told the summit that his government was deeply concerned about rising crime and unemployment in Mexico.
July 10, 2014, Nogales, Mexico. At least 60 people died yesterday, following the collapse of a tunnel underneath this border city. Most of the dead are believed to be Mexicans, trying to enter the United States. More than a dozen other tunnels have been detected by U.S. authorities in recent months, following completion of the Sterile Zone, a combination of walls and scorched earth, which runs the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.
March 4, 2013, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao expressed concern today during a special session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, over U.S. actions to support Japanese claims to ownership of oil deposits in the South China Sea. This is a local issue that must be settled without foreign interference, said Hu, who also condemned “provocative” U.S. interference in Taiwan and Tibet.
July 15, 2012, Mexico City. María Vargas Villa will become Mexico’s first female chief executive, following a narrow victory in last week’s presidential election. Vargas leads the left-leaning People’s Democratic Movement, but is considered a moderate. “To curtail lawlessness, and to stop the flight of poor Mexicans to the United States, we must make Mexico richer,” said Vargas in her first public address. “To do this, we need better forms of cooperation with friends and allies”.
February 15, 2011, Washington DC. Debate continues over the development of additional stages of the wall, which the United States is building on the Mexican border. To date, the U.S. government has spent $2.6 billion on sections of the project covering close to a thousand miles, or about half the total length of the frontier. Meanwhile, several senior Border Patrol authorities have claimed that the structure does little to slow would-be migrants.

Fred Blaser
Chair
Republica Media Group.