Latin America’s Varying Levels of Dependency on China

Throughout the 20th century the region of Latin America has been widely influenced by external actors such as the United States or international organizations, like the IMF or the World Bank. The influences of those actors gave rise to “dependency theory”, which highlights the inequalities between more powerful actors of the so-called “center” of the world and those of the “periphery”. As a response, Latin American countries have engaged in different attempts to decrease the influence of those external actors, while increasing their own. In the early 2000s, due to changes in its foreign policy, the focus of the United States on Latin America has decreased. The risen gap has allowed the recently grown superpower China to focus on the region. Consequently, the East-Asian country has become the first or second biggest trade partner for states like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico or Venezuela. Next to the risen trade other bilateral relations, such as investments, combined...Show moreThroughout the 20th century the region of Latin America has been widely influenced by external actors such as the United States or international organizations, like the IMF or the World Bank. The influences of those actors gave rise to “dependency theory”, which highlights the inequalities between more powerful actors of the so-called “center” of the world and those of the “periphery”. As a response, Latin American countries have engaged in different attempts to decrease the influence of those external actors, while increasing their own. In the early 2000s, due to changes in its foreign policy, the focus of the United States on Latin America has decreased. The risen gap has allowed the recently grown superpower China to focus on the region. Consequently, the East-Asian country has become the first or second biggest trade partner for states like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico or Venezuela. Next to the risen trade other bilateral relations, such as investments, combined attempts of development and political relations, have increased. While there are several apparent benefits for both sides, criticism has been voiced regarding a new version of dependency on China replacing that towards the United States. However, such criticism has mainly focused on assessing the international relations between China as a state and Latin America as an entire region. Therefore, by addressing the rising dependency, this paper will show that, in regard to Sino-Latin American relations, the region of Latin America cannot be analyzed as a whole but has to be divided into its nation states. By comparing the two case studies Chile and Venezuela and their respective relations with China the varying levels of dependency between China and different Latin American states will be portrayed.Show less

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Latin America’s Varying Levels of Dependency on China