Introduction

China’s increasing role in the world is one of the dominant themes of the twenty-first century. Rising from a per capita income similar to those of the poorest African nations in the 1950s, the World Bank now classifies China as an upper-middle-income country and the country has lifted some 800 million people out of poverty. The growth in aggregate income level is even more dramatic: China now has the largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms and is expected to overtake the United States in current dollar terms later in the 2020s. Militarily, China has vastly expanded the capacity of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and increased its role in outer space. Institutionally, it has established powerful new development banks and invited the world to join its massive infrastructure program—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

While the main thrust of China’s expansion thus far has been in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have also been incorporated, mainly in economic terms. China–LAC relations have burgeoned through trade and finance since the early 2000s. While not all aspects of the encounters have been positive, and many in the region remain skeptical of their new partner’s intentions, the Chinese presence has enabled a diversification of Latin America’s international relations that can only be seen as beneficial. Certainly, relations with the US continue to dominate in the northern half of the region and Europe is a significant partner for South America, but China’s new presence provides important new opportunities.

A major problem that Latin America must face in this new context is the growing conflicts between the United States and China and the expectations that Latin America should “take sides” in this struggle. Although the tensions reached an apex during the presidency of Donald Trump in the United States, no one expects them to disappear under the new Biden administration there. Indeed, although the tone may moderate, the conflicts may even increase as Biden officials try to enlist European and Asian allies to contain China’s power. Keeping its distance from such power struggles should be a major foreign policy goal for the LAC region in the coming years.