Xi pays first- ever state visit to Ecuador

Trip to fill diplomacy void on Pacific Rim

President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Ecuador on Thursday local time, the first by a Chinese president to the Latin American country since diplomatic relations were established 36 years ago.

Xi’s unprecedented visit will fill the void of Chinese diplomacy along the Pacific Rim, as China attaches greater importance to the countries, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow on Latin America at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences ( CASS), told the Global Times.

It is the first leg of Xi’s trip to Latin America, before visiting Peru and Chile and attending the 24th Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 19 and 20 in Lima, capital of Peru.

Before the visit, Xi published an article in the leading Ecuadorian newspaper El Telegrafo

on Wednesday. “China views and grows its relations with Ecuador from a strategic and long- term perspective. In January 2015, [ Ecuadorian] President Rafael Correa and I announced the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries, giving a fresh and strong boost to our political trust and strategic cooperation. Since then, we have carried out fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation across the board featuring more dimensions, wider areas and larger scales,” Xi wrote.

Xi’s inaugural trip to the country will further deepen the strategic partnership, Yang Zhimin, another researcher with CASS, told the Global Times.

Wang said Ecuador has an urgent need to draw from China’s experience rid itself of unstable development after failing to follow suit of its former suzerain Spain and world power the US, explaining that China and Ecuador share similar levels of development.

“Both China and Ecuador are developing countries with similar historical experience and shared development goals,” Xi said in his article.

By the end of 2015, the poverty rate in Ecuador reached 23.28 percent, up by 0.8 percent year on year, which was ascribed by experts to a plunge in oil prices, according to data published by the Ecuadorian government.

The fall had led to fiscal difficulties for the government, a stagnant economy and rising unemployment rate.

Wang said the technology and experience of infrastructure projects China can provide would benefit Ecuador, whose infrastructure was still backward after years of economic development.

Correa was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday saying that Chinese investment has aided the development of the economy, industry and energy in Ecuador as a strategic partner, and his country has become one that attracted the most Chinese funds.

China has funneled some $ 15 billion in financing to the South American nation in the past 10 years.

More than 90 Chinese companies operate in Ecuador, and some have been behind the country’s biggest strategic projects, such as its largest hydroelectric plant, Xinhua reported.

Confirmation of support

“Xi’s visit will also confirm China’s continuous support for Ecuador’s eco- nomic development, regardless of next year’s election results,” Wang noted.

Correa will not run for re- election in the country’s 2017 general elections, Ecuadorian media reported in 2015.

Polls say the Ecuadorian leftist Citizen’s Revolution will continue to transform the country for the next four years.

Polls said that Ecuador’s ruling Alianza Pais Party candidate, Lenin Moreno, is favorite to win the next general election ahead of the vote in February 2017, indicating another four years’ of leftwing rule, Venezuelan media teleSUR reported on October 29.

“Even if the right- wing party heads the government,” Wang said, “it is unlikely to change economic relations with China, which has always been pivotal to their bilateral ties.”