Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and China

Enrique Dussel Peters
Publication Date: 
August 28th, 2015

For the past three decades the People’s Republic of China has been undergoing major internal socioeconomic transformations and has seen its position in the world economy shift. China’s rapid globalization has not gone unnoticed in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). China has significantly increased its presence in the region via international organizations such as the United Nations and regional organizations. This chapter explores the “qualitatively new” relationship between LAC and China that emerged at the end of the 1990s and more specifically at the beginning of the 21st century. In addition to political and diplomatic relations, the current LAC-China relationship is marked by China’s recent entry into the globalization process via trade and investment, introducing conditions and elements that are new to Latin America. The paper contains three sections. The first is based on an in-depth review of literature on the subject in order to better understand the current basis for dialogue between LAC and China and includes an examination of bi-regional strategy. Building upon the first section, the second part looks at the main economic characteristics of the LAC-China relationship. The final section includes a brief summary and puts forth a series of proposals for a regional strategy on China.

This paper originally was published in Adrian Bonilla Soria and Paz Milet Garcia, eds., Latin America, the Caribbean, and China: Sub-Regional Strategic Scenarios (FLASCO General Secretariat, 2015). It is posted with permission of the author Dr. Enrique Dussel Peters, the chapter author and a Senior Research Fellow of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations. Copyright remains with the original copyright holders.

**Posting of this report does not represent an endorsement by the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations and has been done to facilitate research and promote debate about multinational corporations/FDI in and from East Asia.