Argentina just moved into the Chinese sphere of influence.

via Defesanet.

The agreement, according to Müller, meets the criteria of Chinese investment in vulnerable economies, in exchange for raw materials and market. This is the same model adopted by China in agreements with Angola and Nigeria. In such cases, China has brought all that was needed to lift the works, including manpower. "In financial difficulty, Argentina became the big China's gateway to South America. Brazil could have avoided, and now must act immediately," said the director of Abimaq.
The president of the Foreign Trade Association of Brazil (AEB), José Augusto de Castro, deplores the fact that the Brazilian government has not included this issue in the last meetings of Mercosur. "If there is tax exemption for imports of Chinese products to these works, Mercosur will be mortally wounded."

Wow.

Alarm bells should be ringing in the US State Dept, Pentagon and particularly in the UK.

Raw materials in exchange for products.

With the Argentine govt desperate to rebuild its military you can bet that the J-31, armored vehicles and even ships will be flowing to S. America.

Argentina is the gateway?  No.  Its simply one in a series of countries that are coming under Chinese influence.  While the Pentagon is fooling itself with partnership missions, the Chinese are using soft power in the classic sense. They're not seeking to spread their ideology, improve conditions for women and girls or seek to spread democracy...they only seek to increase their influence via the old fashioned barter system (not some fraudulent "gloablization scheme").

What an adult way of dealing with other nations.