This article examines the expansion of economic, political, and military activities by the People's Republic of China in Latin America and the Caribbean. It examines how the presence is transforming the region, including the reformulation of the agenda of its leaders, businessmen, and publics, changes to its physical infrastructure, new patterns of trans-Pacific organized crime, fuel to extend the life of populist regimes, and impacts on how member countries relate to each other. It also analyzes how the new presence of China impacts US interests in the region and globally, and how China both complements, and at times competes with, other external actors in the region, such as Russia, Iran, and India.
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This article examines the foreign policy of Latin America and the Caribbean toward the People's Republic of China. It finds that, for those nations recognizing Taiwan, most Latin American nations have had relatively few political differences with the PRC. Exceptions include Brazil's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council and Mexico's receipt of the Dali Lama under the sexenio of Felipe Calderón. Within the region, the most important differences have emerged on issues of foreign economic policy. The article finds that Latin America's heterogeneous orientation toward China on economic issues may be understood in terms of four cross-cutting cleavages, which reflect economic, political, and geographic divisions in the region more broadly: (1) north versus south, (2) populist regimes versus market economies, (3) pure resource exporters versus industrialized exporters versus nonexporting capital recipients versus pure importers , and (4) Pacific versus Atlantic.
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The purpose of this paper is to characterize China's growing relationship in Latin America and the Caribbean from a US perspective, the US response to that relationship, and some of the opportunities and challenges that the changing relationship creates for all parties. It argues that some of the greatest challenges are likely to come not from China-Latin America military engagement, but rather, from the growing physical presence of Chinese companies on the ground in the region, and byproducts of expanding commercial interactions such as trans-pacific criminal activity.
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