Economy

Same goes for you, and then some.

But do try to see it from where the Argentines are standing:

They're in desperate need of the kind of investment that might mitigate current account deficits - investment that helps reduce the need for big-ticket imports, and if possible add to exports too.

That - and their debt interest payments - means dollars they have to come up with, and have a hard time doing so (all the more so, with heady local demand for dollars by the country's panicky middle and upper classes).

And nothing even comes close to Chinese investment in terms of helping with those needs - especially their currency swaps.

Not that Argentina can give China much in return: It's got no clout; it's one of the least militarized countries around (defense budget at 0.3% of GDP - and 80% of that is wages and benefits, so almost no arms industry); and while not "backward" it certainly has nothing the Chinese don't already have many times over.

There is the matter of the Deep Space station China opened in SW Argentina in 2018 - which, though small, could be used for surveillance. I played a key role in China Moon rover landing that year.

But that might've never opened - had it not been for the vulture fund fraud against Argentine bonds in 2012-16, which cut the country off from global credit markets.

Obama should've never allowed the fraud - but he was hoodwinked into thinking "Macri would be a better bet - and the vulture lawsuit would be a good way to bring about regime change."

And while his predecessor did approve it (for the reasons mentioned), Macri let the Chinese inaugurate that base!

What a wicked web we weave...