Chinese relations with the Global South: evidences from Latin America
Abstract
Over the past decades, China has significantly enhanced its national strength and has arisen as the second-largest economy in the world. Meanwhile, Beijing has become enthusiastic about developing South-South relations through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms. This paper looks into the changes and continuities of Sino-Latin American relations to observe Chinese strategic calculations and motivations behind China´s engagement with the Global South. The main findings are: first, the bilateral relations shifted from ideological indifference to economic engagement after China´s Reform and Opening up; second, the commodities boom in the 2000s made China a major trade, investing, and lending partner of Latin America and helped the region sustain its growth even after the 2008 economic crisis; third, China offers alternative development cooperation, which is different from Washington Consensus; forth, the current pandemic poses both challenges and opportunities for Sino-Latin American relations in the future.
