This article provides a well done overview of the political factions in China’s political sphere. I think the most interesting thing that I pulled from this was the the movement of the New Left. As stated in the article, the leaders and many members of this faction were forced out of the country during the tumultuous 1980’s because of their progressive views.  However, they returned from the once believed capitalist and democratic utopia, the United States, with a belief in government involvement in the economy. However, the New Right faction did not have members that were forced out during those years yet hold very capitalist/laissez-fairebeliefs, which would have been heavily persecuted during the 1980’s in China.  Like the article is hinting, these factions hold very evident similarities to many other western nation’s political parties.  As much as Chinese and Western leaders will deny, the similarities between these two spheres seems to be overlapping with each passing decade. I think that the real question is when will these factions be recognized as separate political parties instead of factions within the CCP? 

Most are aware of China’s heavy investment in Africa for the purpose of resource acquisition but China’s involvement in Latin America is much less known.  Several Latin American countries are very resource rich and have been relatively untapped as far as the extraction of these resources.  Like many other nations around the world this is an ideal situation for China to step in and put for the capital that is need to access these resources.  It will be interesting if this recent Chinese investment in the region will have any affect on Chinese relations with the region. Also, if this investment has an affect on Brazilian dominance and growth in Latin America.