Latin America's Foreign Policy as the Region Engages China (original) (raw)
Related papers
China's Relations with Latin America
The Ashgate Research Companion to Chinese Foreign Policy (Burlington: Ashgate, 2012)
This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the relations between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the region of Latin America. While not of recent provenance, this relationship has been somewhat sidelined in comparison to China’s interactions with other parts of the world. This study rectifies this trend by providing a detailed process tracing the key stages in the development of the Sino-Latin American interactions. The focus is on identifying the main patterns and trends. Thus, firstly, the chapter details the dynamism and the predicaments of Beijing’s interactions with the region during the Cold War. Secondly, by identifying the main drivers of the current strategy, this study assesses the post-Cold War dynamics of Sino-Latin American relations. Such an examination provides the background for evaluating the likely future trajectories of China’s involvement in the region.
Vestnik RUDN. International Relations
The research reveals Latin American academic thought on the relationship between Latin America countries and China. The relevance of the topic is linked to the growing importance and presence of China in the foreign policy of Latin American countries, whose bilateral relations are developing against a backdrop of growing US - China tensions. Today, China is one of the key economic partners of several Latin American countries, as well as implementing a number of infrastructure projects on the continent. This forces Latin America to choose between traditional ties of dependence vis-à-vis Washington and increasing economic and investment cooperation with Beijing. Methodologically the article is based on the study and interpretation of the ideas of Latin American scholars and experts gathered from secondary sources, monographs and academic articles. The author puts forward two hypotheses based on the existence of two conjectures. The first hypothesis is that there is no consensus among ...
China-Latin America Relations: Main Themes, Main Problems
Journal of China and International Relations, 2016
Historically there has been very scarce interest from academics and politicians in the field of China-Latin America relations. This has recently changed as a consequence of China’s impressive economic development trajectory after the introduction of economic reform policies of growing openness towards the international economy since the late 1970s. With China’s growing economic weight in the global economy, the country has gained a more central role on the international political scene. This “rise” of China’s global importance has made countries from all world regions increasingly interested in relations with China, and has raised the attention of academics in China and its global role as well as its relations with individual countries and different world regions across the board. From a Chinese perspective, interests have mostly been focused on relations with dominant countries in the developed global North as well as on relations with its regional neighbors, while there has barely...
The Dragon in the Backyard: US Visions of China’s Relations toward Latin America*
2013
The economic and political presence of China in Latin America has been growing since the turn of the century. China is now a major trade partner of Latin American countries. China is also a major investor in the region and quite recently also became an important lender as well as, in some cases, a major supplier of military equipment. The United States has to react to the “dragon in the backyard” given that the Western Hemisphere has traditionally been a US zone of influence, and that Latin America is still a major US export market and destination of US investments. Since 2004–2005, politicians and think tanks have recurrently discussed the implications of the growing Chinese presence in Latin America for US interests and foreign policy. Neither the Bush administration nor the Obama administration saw/sees China as amajor threat in Latin America. This was also the position of the majority of analysts linked to different US think tanks. China’s interests in Latin America are mainly economic namely, trade and access to natural resources. While some observers see a competition for scarce resources in Latin America, others emphasize the economic potentials and benefits of Chinese investments to explore new deposits in Latin America. The direct impact of Chinese economic links with Latin America is less important than its indirect impact: Latin American countries —including those with strained ties with the United States— can act more independently, consequently reducing the United States’ leverage to influence their policies.
This paper discusses five recent contributions to the study of the relations between China and Latin America (Hearn & León-Manríquez 2011, Fornés & Butt Philip 2012, Fung & García-Herrero 2012, He 2012, and Strauss & Armony 2012). These five books on China, Latin America and the Western Hemisphere are reviewed in light of the question of whether the relationship promises a re-ordering of the region or a repetition of old patterns. Similar to an earlier review essay by Nicola Phillips, which this paper builds on, we observe that studies lack historical context and analysis of deeper repercussions, that the Chinese perspective is very much underrepresented, and there is a lack of differentiation between national and regional identities, in that Latin America is disaggregated into national units while China is treated as a monolithic unitary actor, which is increasingly inadequate, as it diversifies its approaches and interests.
Latin America China Relations A Review of Recent Literature 2010 2020 CLALS
CLALS Working Papers No 52, 2022
(CRIES), a non-partisan think tank and network. He has authored several books both in Spanish and English, edited more than 30 collective volumes both in English and Spanish, and published more than 200 academic articles in Spanish, English, French, German and Russian. Established in 2010, the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS) is a campuswide initiative advancing and disseminating state-of-the-art research. The Center's faculty affiliates and partners are at the forefront of efforts to understand economic development, democratic governance, cultural diversity and change, peace and diplomacy, health, education and environmental well-being. CLALS generates high-quality, timely analysis on these and other issues in partnership with researchers and practitioners from AU and beyond. This paper is produced by CLALS as part of a project supported by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and the U.S. Department of State to analyze China's efforts to shape perceptions of its role in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project is led by CLALS Director Eric Hershberg. For more information, please visit the project page on our website.
Latin America as Strategic Theater of China’s “Side Principle”
This paper was written in January 2006. ----- This paper presents a brief survey of the main concerns related to the increased Chinese economic and political influence on Latin America, coinciding with times of what we call izquierdización; that is, the rising presence of radical leftist regimes in the region such as the ones of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia and, to a lesser degree, Lula Da Silva in Brazil.2 Although I do not believe that Chinese involvement currently indicates a serious security challenge to the United States (U.S.) hegemony in the region I argue that Beijing strategy of engagement in Latin America is part of a long term geostrategic plan compatible with its aspiration of reaching world power status. My premise is that Beijing's long term strategic plan is to challenge the U.S. by systematically building capabilities upon three major aspects: economic, political and military in different regions of the world. I will also argue that the growing political, economic and military relationships insistently pursued by The People’s Republics of China (China) on a region of traditional U.S. influence are part of China’s need to assure access to strategic natural resources, as well as other motivations such as the policy of isolating Taiwan, the need of increasing its global political presence and the desire of extending the markets of Chinese manufactured goods. The two fundamental sources of this paper are a number of reports prepared by several experts upon the request of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in July 21, 2005, as well as personal interviews conducted by the author between December 2005 and January 2006 with Central American national security officials.