The “China syndrome” was once a synonym for disaster: the meltdown of a US nuclear reactor that would burn a hole through the Earth to China. These days the China syndrome refers to something less cataclysmic but only marginally less dramatic than the 1979 disaster movie of the same name. China’s economy, seemingly incapable of growing at less than 10% a year, is powering global growth and sucking in raw materials and manufacturing capacity from around the world.
For some in Latin America, this has been close to disastrous. Many of Mexico’s maquiladoras – factories that use cheap labour to assemble goods for the US market at a fraction of the cost of US manufacturers – have transferred operations to China almost overnight. For others, China’s growth is a godsend. South American exports of mineral and agricultural commodities are providing the raw materials China needs for construction and food, as tens of millions of its people move from the countryside to the cities.
