China’s top diplomat on the US-Mexico border denounced protectionism as a dead end at the weekend, delivering a pointed defence of open trade just weeks before Mexico, the United States and Canada sit down to review the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that governs North American commerce.
Consul General Fu Xinrong told a business gathering in Tijuana that unilateralism benefits no one and called on nations to build economic ties based on sovereignty and mutual respect rather than tariff walls.
“Unilateralism and protectionism do not benefit anyone. It would be a dead end,” Fu said.
Though she did not name the United States, the target was difficult to miss. Washington has signalled it will use the USMCA review to push for tighter rules of origin and new curbs on Chinese firms it accuses of using Mexico as a back door into the American market.
Mexico has already moved to get ahead of that pressure, imposing tariffs of up to 50 per cent on hundreds of Chinese product lines in what officials framed as an alignment with North American economic security interests.
The stakes are particularly high in Baja California, where Chinese manufacturers have built a formidable industrial cluster over the past decade.
Hisense, TCL, TPV Technology, BOE and Yongfeng Technology all operate factories in the state, grouped under the Chinese Business Association of Baja California.
What began as basic assembly operations has evolved into advanced manufacturing hubs that feed components and finished goods directly into the US market.
US trade officials have identified those cross-border supply chains as a priority target in the USMCA review, arguing they allow Chinese firms to circumvent American tariffs.
But Fu offered a different reading of China’s presence, framing Beijing not as a source of trade friction but as a partner in what she called shared modernisation, using language that Chinese diplomats have deployed across Latin America as American pressure on the region mounts.
“We are living in an era not seen in a century, very turbulent, very complex,” she said, invoking a phrase that has become a pillar of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy rhetoric since 2017.
“But what China is doing, the whole world has already seen with clarity.”
The diplomatic offensive on the border comes as Beijing steps up engagement with Mexican state governments and business chambers that have grown dependent on Chinese capital.
Baja California alone received more than 300 Chinese firms in the past decade, most of them concentrated in Tijuana’s industrial estates within kilometres of the US border.
Beyond the trade dispute, Fu laid out a vision of AI-driven competitiveness that she said would soon reshape northern Mexico’s industrial landscape.
She claimed that most Chinese households already rely on AI-powered devices for cleaning, cooking and elder care, and warned that professions such as interpreters, lawyers and administrative workers are at risk of displacement by AI agents.
“It is surprising and also dangerous because of its self-learning capacity,” she said.
“China has put forward an AI initiative, and we hope all countries will join so we can have a universal rule and an ethical balance,” Fu added.
The warning is not abstract for Baja California. AI adoption among Mexico’s population reached 66 per cent late last year, above the global average of 62 per cent, according to a Google and Ipsos survey.
Job postings in Mexico that require AI skills grew at a compound annual rate of 33.6 per cent between 2021 and 2024, PwC found.
To back the AI push with institutional weight, Fu said Wuhan University will formalise cooperation agreements with Cetys University and the Tijuana Institute of Technology. The deals would establish faculty and student exchanges alongside joint research programmes.
“Academic cooperation between China and Mexico can nurture talent through student and faculty exchanges, joint research and publications,” she said. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
