ABSTRACT
The rise of the People’s Republic of China in Latin America has occurred in two phases. First came a rich political exchange and a number of cross-Pacific visits that began in the 1960s, as the Chinese Communist Party reached out to leftist parties of like minds in this region. With China’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization and its acceleration of a manufacturing export-led development model, there was an explosion of Chinese demand for the commodities that Latin America holds in abundance. Thus began a second, more business-like phase of this relationship based on rapidly increasing trade, investment and policy bank lending from China to six key countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Since the advent of the Trump Administration in 2017, Washington has declared China a predatory competitor out to displace the United States within its own backyard. However, the record shows that China’s numerous overtures, including membership of the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank, fall under the umbrella of standard diplomacy. On balance, the region has benefited from China’s more heterodox policy approaches; however, host governments have been far too passive and must hold China’s feet to the fire on global investment norms around transparency, accountability and environmental protection.
