What does China want from Latin America and the Caribbean?
Along with trading with the region, it is increasingly important in geopolitical terms
China’s engagement with Latin America has tended to be purely transactional. It went from hardly trading with the region at the turn of the century to overtaking the United States to become the top trading partner for South America, and the second almost everywhere else in Latin America. Annual goods trade between China and Latin America rose to $445bn in 2021, up from $12bn in 2000. But its relationship with the region appears to be evolving. Latin America is increasingly useful to China in geopolitical terms, too.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Comrades across continents”
From the June 17th 2023 edition
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