Economy

When Macri was elected in 2015, with his con-man smile and all his U.S.-flag-waving, it was mostly seen as a "win" in Washington foreign policy circles.

Then he doubled the country's already-bulky foreign debt - including the record-setting $45 billion bailout Trump forced the IMF to lend him ahead of Macri's 2019 re-election campaign.

Macri lost anyway - but left his country with a colossal, $200 billion public foreign debt that's absolutely overwhelming now.

Argentina's not that poor - but it is dollar-poor, you see. Anything that forces them to come up with a ton of dollars puts them in a spot - and in need of a big, alternative source of funding like China.