Reporter’s note: How a mall in Mexico became a flashpoint in US-China rivalry

At last month’s China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, I met a businessman who worked for years at a Chinese-language newspaper in Mexico City – and as I’d recently spent some time reporting in Mexico’s capital, we had plenty to talk about.

The topic of conversation quickly turned to a controversial Chinese-funded megastore: Plaza Izazaga 89, or Mexico Mart, located in the centre of the city. It had been ordered to close temporarily by local authorities twice this year.

“It will be shut down again,” he said, confidently.

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

At a press briefing following the closure – and the seizure of 262,334 pieces of counterfeit goods worth 7.5 million pesos (US$371,795) – the country’s economic secretary Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon said the government was protecting domestic industries and eradicating “illicit practices that affect the public and the national economy.” Similar operations will be carried out across the nation, he added.