China's Xi Comes Calling on Americas

China's new leader, Xi Jinping, kicks off his Americas visit in Trinidad and Tobago Friday, a stop that underlines China's attempt to both secure fresh energy sources and reach out to developing countries.

The stop, which will be followed by others in Costa Rica and Mexico before Mr. Xi meets with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Sunnylands estate in California, could help China establish a strategic foothold in the Caribbean as U.S. aid and investment in the region wanes.

In particular, Mr. Xi's three-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago is designed to help China get access to fresh supplies of liquefied natural gas just as a U.S. shale-gas boom has left gas-exporting nations in the Caribbean looking for alternative markets.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Latin America's largest exporter of manufactured goods, the Chinese leader will seek to strengthen trade ties. Officials from the two sides are expected to discuss the reduction of import tariffs for some Mexican products, such as chicken or tequila, according to the Mexican government.

Relations between Mexico and China have been tense since China's emergence as an export powerhouse and challenging rival for the Latin American country in the global trade arena, though Mexico has recently recovered some lost ground due to rising labor costs in China. "We want to leave this behind us, and transit from rivals to trade partners," said a senior Mexican government official.

Mr. Xi's trip to Latin America and the Caribbean should be seen as mainly a commercial endeavor, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society in Washington.

China "has only been active in the region for about a decade. I see this as not an attempt to project power but to find sources of commodities that they require to fuel their own economic growth," he said….

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