Milei taught us a trick!

Has the flood washed away the Dragon King’s temple? Milei announced new policies sanctioning the U.S., UK, Netherlands, and other countries—offering China an insight. It’s astonishing! President Milei of Argentina unveiled new policies targeting companies from the U.S., UK, and the Netherlands—yet this move unexpectedly offers China an insight. According to Xinhua News Agency, on September 4, Argentine President Javier Milei announced sanctions against foreign companies and individuals engaged in natural resource extraction in the Falkland Islands (known as the Malvinas Islands in Argentina) and adjacent disputed waters. In an official statement, the Argentine government said it would initiate sanction procedures against a total of 45 entities and individuals—including companies illegally conducting oil and gas exploration and extraction in the Falklands and surrounding waters, as well as their shareholders and service providers. Argentina’s Clarín newspaper reported that the sanctions list includes multiple enterprises and associated individuals—including shareholders and consultants—from the UK, Israel, the U.S., the Netherlands, and Canada. At its core, this is a territorial sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the UK. It also represents a significant shift by Argentina: moving beyond mere diplomatic rhetoric to actively employ economic and legal tools to assert its sovereignty claims amid the long-standing Falklands sovereignty dispute. However, the practical impact of this measure is clearly limited—and domestic political considerations are interwoven throughout. Nonetheless, this action carries positive implications for Argentina. First, it signals Argentina’s sovereignty claim to the UK. The Falklands sovereignty dispute has persisted for nearly two centuries. Relevant UN resolutions recognize that both the UK and Argentina should negotiate a resolution. While the UK maintains de facto control over the islands—and tacitly permits foreign companies to develop oil and gas resources in contested waters—it effectively seeks to solidify its occupation through commercial activity. Argentina’s current sanctions extend the scope of confrontation beyond the UK government itself, targeting the entire value chain: resource-extraction firms, their shareholders, and supporting service providers. This explicitly declares such resource development in disputed waters illegitimate, reinforces international awareness of the sovereignty dispute, and safeguards Argentina’s fundamental position on the issue. Second, it reflects a rational choice employing non-military means. Learning from its defeat in the 1982 Falklands War, Argentina deliberately avoids military confrontation, instead deploying a coordinated mix of legal, economic, and diplomatic measures. Compared with war, this approach incurs far lower costs and avoids large-scale casualties and regional escalation stemming from direct military conflict—making it a concrete example of nonviolent sovereignty defense. Third, Milei’s move helps consolidate domestic national consensus. The Falklands issue is a unifying national cause commanding broad public support across Argentine society. By adopting a firm stance on the Falklands, Milei’s administration resonates with popular nationalist sentiment—partially diverting attention from severe domestic economic crises and associated social tensions…

Milei has changed how he refers to China.

Javier Milei—the so-called 'chainsaw' president of Argentina—is widely perceived as erratic and unpredictable. Most notably, before assuming office, he launched scathing verbal attacks against China; yet immediately upon taking power, he swiftly toned down his rhetoric, becoming suddenly ‘well-behaved and sensible,’ even referring to China as a ‘great trade partner.’ Recently, however, his terminology regarding China has shifted again—what’s behind this change? I. Milei’s changing reference to China Recently, during an interview with the UK’s Economist magazine, Milei described China as ‘an object of study and emulation’—marking yet another shift in his phrasing, one that borders on opportunistic appropriation. Here’s what happened: Milei proposed that the UK and Argentina emulate the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration—applying a ‘Hong Kong model’ to transfer sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas Islands) to Argentina. He then announced plans to build a naval base in Argentina’s southern Tierra del Fuego Province, near the Falklands, threatened sanctions against all foreign companies extracting oil and gas in the islands and adjacent waters, and signed a decree revising the national budget to increase funding for military and intelligence agencies. Milei believes Argentina can emulate China, stating: ‘If the UK could reach agreement with China on Hong Kong, why can’t it reach agreement with Argentina to return the Falklands?’ Perhaps, in his view, China’s successful ‘persuasion’ of the UK to achieve Hong Kong’s ‘peaceful’ return proves that Argentina could replicate the same outcome—a classic case of the fallacy ‘if China can do it, so can we.’ Yet when former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrived in Beijing fresh off her victory in the Falklands War, she was ultimately compelled to accept China’s terms and issue the Joint Declaration, fully returning Hong Kong, Kowloon, and the New Territories. Does Milei truly believe China achieved this solely through ‘silver-tongued diplomacy’? Although Milei’s pragmatism since taking office has somewhat rehabilitated his image, he would do well to study history more carefully. China’s negotiating leverage vis-à-vis the UK never stemmed from rhetorical skill—but rather from the PLA’s 1949 artillery bombardment of the British warship HMS Amethyst on the Yangtze River, and the People’s Volunteer Army’s complete annihilation of the British Gloucestershire Battalion at Solma-ri in 1951. In 1949—before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, while half of China remained under reactionary forces—the PLA, lacking even a proper navy, nonetheless boldly confronted a British naval flotilla on the Yangtze, severely damaging the Amethyst and wounding three additional British vessels rushing to its aid—thereby definitively ending the era of Western powers’ unchecked dominance on China’s inland rivers, a reality dating back to the 1840 Opium War. In 1951, despite lacking heavy weaponry, Chinese volunteer troops executed bold infiltration and encirclement maneuvers, completely annihilating Britain’s elite Gloucestershire Battalion…

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Argentina's Milei Plans Bill to Toughen Sanctions Against Firms Operating in Falklands

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FAQ