The increasing popularity of Chinese in Argentina, and Spanish in China

An article here in Spanish has some recent numbers on the increased interest in the Chinese language in Argentina, and Spanish in China. Most of the article is filler ("Chinese is a booming language of business", "understanding culture is good for business", etc.) but the following is worth noting:

- The number of students in China studying Spanish has grown by 160% over the past five years
- The University of Buenos Aires began offering Chinese in 2009, and now has 1,000 students studying the language
- In 2010, exports from Argentina to China were valued at $6.5 billion, while imports from China to Argentina were $8.3 billion.

The article doesn't state how much of an increase this is over previous years, but this page on Wikipedia has the information: in 2007 exports to China were $5.3 billion, and imports $5.1 billion, and even then China was Argentina's second-largest trading partner after Brazil. Per capita though Chile is still very high: with a population of just 17 million it was their fourth-largest trading partner in 2007 after Brazil, China, and the US.


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