Despite her promise, Milei did not travel to China, distancing herself from Xi Jinping and prioritizing her relationship with Trump.

It was during a television interview with Susana Giménez on Telefé at the end of last September that Javier Milei announced he was traveling to China to meet with his colleague Xi Jinping . He even provided a date and context: he said it would be during his participation in the summit of the Communities of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) , which was initially scheduled to take place in January in Beijing.

Finally, the CELAC-China summit was postponed and begins this Tuesday the 13th in Beijing , without Milei and without Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein, who intended to travel to meet with the local diplomats along with the Secretary of International Economic Relations, Luis María Kreckler, who was precisely Alberto Fernández's ambassador in Beijing for a few months.

But none of them will travel to the Asian powerhouse, Argentina's second-largest trading partner. Instead, they decided to send Vice Foreign Minister Eduardo Bustamante , who has already arrived in the Asian capital. Werthein informed the Chamber of Deputies, which was expecting him to explain his foreign policy on Tuesday, May 20, that he would accompany President Milei to Rome for the enthronement of the new Pope, Leo XIV , where they hoped to at least greet Donald Trump. However, the presidential trip to Italy is also "unexpected." Kreckler, meanwhile, was traveling to Washington for the first meetings on tariff negotiations with the Trump administration.

For the Chinese, Milei and Werthein's absence and Bustamante's dispatch are a way of demoting them, a snub , Clarín learned from highly placed sources. Especially considering, they said, that China has been renewing, even early, the currency swap lines with the Argentine Central Bank that provide foreign currency to the always critical national coffers. The government was also elated with the recent agreement from the International Monetary Fund, through which it secured a $20 billion loan. Days earlier, China early renewed a $5 billion swap agreement maturing in June 2025.

While it would be unprecedented for Milei to travel to CELAC—a forum expressly excluding the United States, and to which the libertarian rejected and did not send anyone to the last meeting in Tegucigalpa—it would be even more so considering the profile of those who will be present, such as his left-wing and center-left neighbors: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil; Gustavo Petro of Colombia; and Gabriel Boric of Chile.

But, on the other hand, the President's decision to continue postponing his trip to China was made by the Government due to the Donald Trump effect, and out of fear of the maximum pressure the United States is exerting on Argentina to force the libertarian to distance himself from China.

While the Biden administration's civilian and military administration did so in its own way throughout last year, upon Trump's coming to power, the first to make it resonate was the now outgoing State Department deputy envoy, Mauricio Claver Carone.

But Milei came to power aligned with Israel, the United States, and the European Union, what he called the "free world" against "pacts with communists." He promised that he would not have relations with China for that very reason, but over time, necessity, the strong Chinese presence in Argentina, and the costs of a possible disengagement brought Milei closer to Xi Jinping, with whom he met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit held in Brazil.

"We had a meeting with the ambassador (Wang Wei), and the next day they unblocked the swap," Milei said during her conversation with Susana Giménez. It was due to the rescheduling, in June 2024, of payments corresponding to an activated tranche of the currency swap Argentina maintains with China, which is crucial to its meager coffers. China is a "very interesting trading partner" because "they don't demand anything," she said , adding: "The only thing they ask is not to be bothered."

Former Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, Central Bank President Santiago Bausili, and Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno made trips to Beijing to focus on trade.

But when Trump took office, his officials began sending messages, and in a forceful manner. They included Claver Carone; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; and Southern Command chief Alvin Holsey, who had just visited Argentina. All of them, to varying degrees , asked that, in principle, and now that they have the loan from the International Monetary Fund, Argentina abandon the swap and distance itself from China .