Led by the automaker BYD, China has established itself as the main car supplier in Mexico. The US worries China could use Mexico as a “back door” to sidestep tariffs and gain footing in the US market.

Foreign investment would be an economic boost for Mexico. The company has claimed that a plant there would create about 10,000 jobs. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesos—about $21,300 dollars—a little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    To clarify, the reason China was allowed to gain that amount of economic influence in the first place was because it was thought they’d be part of the democratic West. Without that, nobody wants an authoritarian superpower.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      What? Literally nobody thinks that. The entire Belt and Road Initiative is pretty much open expansionism

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Belt and Road is waaay more recent than what I’m talking about, being declared in 2013. The Cold War ramped down in the 80’s and ended around '90 or so, and then the triumphalist narrative that “history had ended” and democracy had irrevocably won was influential in the 90’s and arguably 2000’s.

        Also, I’m not really sure “expansionism” is the right word for peacefully growing one’s economy and soft power. Otherwise, the West is expansionist as hell, and that undersells actual territorial expansionism like in Taiwan or Ukraine.