All Roads Lead to China: Argentina's Beef Exports in the Context of a New Subordinate Complementarity

ABSTRACT This article analyses the recent expansion of Argentina's beef exports in the context of China's emergence as the world's leading beef importer and the principal destination for Argentine exports. It examines shifts in production, export orientation and domestic consumption, and analyses the export‐oriented fractions of meat capital that have benefited from growing access to the Chinese market since 2013. Drawing on the concept of subordinate complementarity, the article argues that while Argentine meat capital has pursued profit‐oriented strategies to expand exports to China and consolidate trade relations from which it derives significant benefits, this alignment remains confined to primary commodity specialisation, thereby reproducing structurally asymmetric relations of production and trade.