http://finance.sina.com.cn/zl/china/20131211/143817601516.shtml

Wrote by the journalist of Sina Finance Beijing    Ding Rui

China National Petroleum Corporation bought three oil wells in Argentina but the Argentine government required the company to employ 300 local workers. The company did as required but the workers went on strike at the first few days. China National Petroleum Corporation consulted the local person and paid the salary as promised into the government’s account, which is ten thousand each month. The government took 30%, the labor union took 30% and the workers took 40%. Then there’s no strike anymore and the project returned to normal operation.  

Free parades, alluring tango, chaotic security and government corruption often took place in the capital city of Argentina. Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world, but gradually in a sphere of magical reality it appeared “hundred years of solitude” from prosperity to depression. Brief stay proved that Buenos Aires was just like a man without wind.

Taking off from Beijing, after nine-hour flight to Frankfurt, seven-hour waiting and another more than fifteen hours’ flight, finally we arrived at Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. This so-called international airport resembles the 3rd and 4th tier provincial cities in China. It is a bit small and old. When you come out of the airport, unlicensed taxi drivers were waiting there and making gestures for attracting business.

Both roadsides from the airport to downtown were lined with lawn. The weather was a little cloudy but it didn’t hinder the fresh of the lawn. Tour leader Xia introduced that in 1970s Buenos Aires enacted a law that more than 30% of the city should be greening.

Buenos Aires is divided into provinces and cities. It is equivalent to the urban area in the second ring road of Beijing and is the main population centers. The city is bounded by the ring road. The whole population is 13 million and there’re more than 20 million private cars.

From time to time, there’re large trees with Jacaranda mimosifolia. It is the national flower of Argentina. It is a deciduous tree with only 45 days’ florescence, which is exactly the season we come.

Tour leader Xia is of my age, his father is from Beijing and his mother is from Hong Kong. They came to Argentina for business in the late 1980s so he has lived here since he was 4. He can speak Spanish, English, Cantonese and mandarin.

For the first stop he took us to the Rose Garden.

Argentines love roses because they regard the color of rose as a combination of white and red, which symbolize freedom and blood. The color of rose also represents Argentines’ pursue of freedom and independence. The garden is not large with many gooses and pigeons inside.

You can enjoy the red soil, green land, blue flowers and the nature you can imagine. Many people are running, playing skateboard and riding bicycles in the garden. However, Xia said that Argentines are lazy and clumsy.

As a matter of fact in the last three decades of the 19^th century, the number of immigrants, the construction of railways and the foreign trade that attracted foreign investments were in the stage of great development. To the beginning of the 20^th century, Argentina was not only famous for its elegant tango and burly Gauchos cowboy but also well-known for its wealth. At that time, Argentina was honored as “the granary and meat storage of the world” because of exporting large amounts of grains and beef. Buenos Aires was seen as the “the Paris of South America”. In many Europe cities, people always say “he is as rich as an Argentine” when they want to describe someone wallow in money.

In 1900, the GDP per capita of Argentina was half of America, Britain and Australia and double of Japan, higher than Finland and Norway and lower than Italy and Sweden. In 1913, the average income of Argentina was 3797 dollars, higher than France (3485 dollars) and Germany (3648 dollars). Even in 1950, Argentina was still richer than Japan and was equivalent to Italy, Austria and Germany.

But gradually “hundred years of solitude” from prosperity to depression took place in Argentina in a sphere of magical reality.

In order to support manufacturing industry in 1950s, the Argentine government decided to take actions of building up trade barriers to prevent the “naive industry” from facing an environment without foreign competition. However the consequence is that the economy of enterprises grew slowly.

In 1989, when inflation reaches 5000%, new president Carlos Saúl Menem took office. Shortly afterwards he began to implement ambitious economic reforms.

After taking office Menem carried out the economic policies of extreme liberalism, auction state-owned enterprises and dollarize the currencies, which gave rise to a temporary boom. But affected by the financial crisis in 1997, the economy of Argentina deteriorated rapidly and finally went bankruptcy.

In 1998, Brazil’s currency devalued. While at the same time, dollar is firm because of the strong economy of America. Actually Peso, which is linked to dollars, is equal to appreciation. The export competitiveness of Argentina was under attack and the economy began to enter a 36-month recession.

In 1999, the government spending reached 28.2% of its GDP. It’s impossible to overprint money because of the currency dollarization. Menem failed to cut down expenses so he issued large amounts of bonds to foreign countries to fill the gap, which formed a vicious circle. Menem even wanted to take office as the president for the third time in that year, but he failed. He was adjudged to violating the constitution so he has to step down. It was estimated that the government’s debt was about 150 billion, almost half of the country’s GDP.

In late 2001, Argentina was trapped in serious crisis and changed 5 presidents in half a month. One of the presidents made a public announcement that Argentina couldn’t afford the debt, which was more than 150 billion. That made Argentina the biggest deadbeat country in history. At that time, about 2000 citizens who were in the middle class fell below poverty line every day.

Tour leader Xia shared us two stories.

One is to explain the corruption of Argentine government. When he was 15 years old, he went out by his father’s car secretly. On the road he was questioned by the police because he neither reached the lawful age of driving nor had driving license and insurance. According to the rules, the police needed to punish him but when he gave money to the police they just went away as nothing happened.

The other thing happened in around 2000. More and more Chinese people came to Argentina to do business, about several thousand people. Due to their diligence, Chinese almost monopolized over 90% of the supermarkets. At first like many European cities, local supermarkets in Argentina usually opened for a short time and were closed in weekends. Until Chinese people came has the rule been broken. They gradually canceled the noon break and opened at night and in weekends. Local people withdrew from the market successively and a group of Chinese summoned their friends to do business in Argentina.

However throughout 1990s the whole South America was in turmoil and Argentina without exception. Argentina was in a severe financial crisis in 2001. At that time, the images appearing on the global television were the police on the back of the horse, smoke released from the tear bomb, calls from protesters and cries from those shop owners who have been robbed. Shops opened by Chinese became the focus of robbery and violence.

Many of his friends and neighbors have been robbed that year. Those Chinese people raised hundreds of thousands of money to do business here. They were unwilling to give up so they insisted on resistance. Some of them stood before their shop with gas tank in hand. If the robbers came in, they would ignite the gas tank and perished together, which killed countless people.

Up till now, Argentina is still a country with high welfare. People living here have a high happiness index.

All Argentines can enjoy the free medical treatments and free education from kindergarten to primary school, middle school and university, even to master and doctor. Our tour leader Xia had two degrees in the university, law and chemical engineering.

The medical level in Argentina is quite high. It is said that the first coronary bypass operation was invented by an Argentine doctor. The doctor devoted all his knowledge and wealth to the medical career. But he lived in poverty in the end and even needed to rely on the help of his neighbor who have been saved by him in order to barely live.

On the way Xia introduced Buenos Aires to us as well as his life experience and his opinion to Argentina. Through chatting I knew that tour leader was just one of his jobs. He also worked as a part-time translator and set up a company which provides consulting services for Chinese enterprises who invest here. China National Petroleum Corporation and ICBC were his clients.

The corruption of Argentine government was especially manifested by its president. The Argentina president was Christina, whose family was the richest one in the country.

In 2003, her family mastered 13% of the oil field and 37% of the mining right. But after she took office, till now, the proportion becomes 76% and 98%.

In the words of a deputy economic officer, Argentina is a typical example of crony capitalism.

Repudiating the debt is also the customs in Argentine government. The new government denies the debt of the previous one and the national treasury is empty. They even repudiated the national debt, which symbolized the country’s reputation. Therefore, Barings Bank and Banco do Brasil were located near Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires in order to monitor the actions of the government in this area.

The government is also shrewd on the tax revenue.

Buenos Aires levied 3% of real estate tax and 4% of property tax on houses. The government is clever that although the inflation in Argentina was serious, for example the price of a bottle of mineral water rose from 7 to 8.2 in half a month, but the tax was levied in dollars.

When talking about the investments of Chinese enterprises in Argentina, Xia spoke with relish.

China National Petroleum Corporation bought three oil wells but suffered setbacks twice. The Argentine government required the enterprise to employ 300 local workers. They did as required but the workers went on strike at the first two days. The first time was because of the strike, the second time was due to the participation of the labor union, which stopped the China National Petroleum Corporation from working.

The enterprise is competitive so it didn’t give up and continued to invest the third oil well. This time they consulted the local person and paid the salary as promised into the government’s account, which is ten thousand each month. The government took 30%, the labor union took 30% and the workers took 40%. Then there’s no strike anymore and the project returned to normal operation. 

Mr.Xia said that China National Petroleum Corporation and Huawei are two most successful Chinese enterprises in Argentina. Most other enterprises, especially private ones, gave up after suffering one setback. The main reason is that they didn’t understand the “hidden rule” of local government.

After twenty years’ experiences, Xia’s opinion on Argentina is that the first bucket of gold is always ready for you as long as you have innovation and wisdom.

The Jews resold the flat to the Spanish nobilities and got villas. Then they built more flats on the villas and sold them to earn money.

During the two days in Buenos Aires, the four main meals are all Chinese dishes separately in different hotels. After the turmoil of the 1990s, Chinese came to Argentina in succession after 2003. But in Xia’s words, at first people coming to Argentina were from big cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Now people are mainly from Fujian Xiamen and Sanming. Christmas is coming and Chinese businessmen have a sense of fear.

Okay, let’s talk back to the city itself.

The next day we visited the Plaza de Mayo in the morning. Since the May Revolution broke out in 1810, it has become the site for holding major political events, similar to the Tiananmen Square in China, but without the statue of chairman.

The Plaza de Mayo witnessed the history of Argentina. The law of free medical treatments and free education was declared here. It has another democratic name, called Demonstration Square. If someone’s sewer doesn’t work and wants to complain to the government, there will be absolutely no problem to call out on the square with a banner.

There is a pyramid monument in the center of the square, also in honor of the May Revolution of Argentine people for independence. It is 13 meters high and on the four sides of the white pyramid are the reliefs of Argentine national emblem. On its top is the statue of Greece goddess Bellona, which symbolizes the liberation and freedom.

In the west of the square is a bell tower in Spanish colonial style, which was built in 1711. It was the guildhall in the colonial period and now becomes the museum.

In the east of the square, the rose-colored house is the office of the president, called Rose Palace. Between the May Pyramid and the Rose Palace is the bronze statue of Belgrano, the designer of the Argentine national flag.

Soccer fans are most familiar with the blue and white national flag of Argentina. I have no idea whether the designer is clever or lazy. He just put the blue sky of Argentina on the cloth.

At the early stage, most of the Spanish who came to Buenos Aires didn’t do well in Spain. After earning money in American continent they probably had to return to their hometowns. Therefore, from plan to construction, the colonial city is not as gorgeous as the Europe and there are many difficulties to cope with.

Take Cologne Opera House for an example, only Vienna and New York Opera House can be ranked before it.

The widest road in Buenos Aires was built for commemorating the victory day of July 9^th. It is said to be the widest road in the world, with 170 meters at its widest point. But after the greening of the city in 1970s, separation belts were added in the middle of the road and the sense of space disappeared.

The public security in Buenos Aires is terrible. Foreign tourists are often robbed, especially cameras, IPAD and mobile phones. Maybe it’s because stealing needs thinking but robbing is the most simple and crude way. (Before we returned, two of us were carrying a bag with passports, mobile phones, wallets and cash inside. The bag was stole while we were having meals in the restaurant on the way back. One surveillance video showed that the bag was stolen by a woman with red pants. Before this one of his friends’ bag was robbed.

Especially in La Boca. People know about Boca mainly because of the Boca youth team. We also took a short visit in Estadio Alberto J. Armando, the home court of Boca and bought some souvenirs in the shop.

Unlike the excitements of soccer, Boca is the famous poor area in Buenos Aires.

At the end of the 19th century, large amounts of poor Italians came to Argentina for making a living. They built rough houses with iron sheets. However, they didn’t have money to buy oil paints. In order to make the houses more unique, they painted the outer wall and roof with the remaining oil paints in the port. But those free oil paints are not enough so usually the painting of the house was painted by several colors. It is the poverty that made the place blazing with color.

The unexpected surprise happened in this poor area. Artists love here, as well as tourists. Therefore the best sidewalk café opened here. Musicians, dancers and artists gathered here and it became the birthplace of Argentine modern sculpture and tango music.

We visited the most famous tango street in Boca, which is the birthplace of sidewalk café. However the café is no longer opened, the prostitutes and tango dancers who were attracting business at the dock are also not here. There are some models with heavy makeup for taking photos and men and women who simply twisting their bodies.

On the way to the national airport the early morning next day, we took a quick look at Boca under the darkness. Simple brick houses without any sense of beauty are just like Chinese urban villages which are being tearing down.

If we regard Boca as the representative of poverty and art, then the old town San is the memory of nobilities, which shows the beauty of the little Paris in South America.

Tour leader told us that he leaded a French team before. When the elders in 70 to 80s came here, they can’t help themselves tearing just because they have found the memories before.

Houses from the 16th century to the 19th century were all preserved well. Mottled stone roads loyally recorded the time.

On the central plaza, there was a craftsman with Indian looking who was making spoons. The sunlight was warm and we immersed ourselves in happily. Within the 100 meters limited by the tour leader were all shops. It’s a pity that we couldn’t visit them carefully.