Abstract
This chapter argues that China and the United States have important opportunities to collaborate in Latin America to advance the fortunes of countries in the region and to find shared outcomes on issues such as climate, peace, and development. To achieve these outcomes, China, the US, and Latin American and Caribbean countries will have to adapt—the great powers currently compete in the region and Latin American and Caribbean countries remain fragmented and uncoordinated. More significant advances can come if Latin American nations operate collectively, gaining greater leverage, presenting more attractive partners to great powers, and undertake a logistical role to guide external partnerships into developmental upgrading. Engaging Latin America can move China forward in terms of its medium-term development goals and especially in terms of contributing to a multipolar and balanced world order, but only if it scales up Latin American and Caribbean integration and contributes to upgrades in productivity and living standards. For the US, a more peaceful and developed neighborhood can be possible, but only if it avoids zero-sum conflict with China.
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Notes
- 1.
For a discussion of China’s pursuit of its national goals see Doshi (2021).
- 2.
Reported by Nikkei Asia as “Full text of Xi Jingping’s speech on the CCP’s 100th anniversary, https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Full-text-of-Xi-Jinping-s-speech-on-the-CCP-s-100th-anniversary.
- 3.
Blunting, building and expanding are the three mechanisms which a rising state can use sequentially to displace the power of a hegemon according to Doshi op cit.
- 4.
Joseph Biden, Remarks by President Biden at the 2021 Virtual Munich Security Conference, February 19, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/19/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-2021-virtual-munich-security-conference/.
- 5.
Biden-Harris Democrats, The Biden Plan to Build Security and Prosperity in Partnership with the People of Central America, https://joebiden.com/centralamerica/.
- 6.
Ellis (2021a) points out that Mexico’s problems are huge and include deep penetration of the state by transnational organized crime, frightening violence, an ineffective security apparatus, a government that has been unable to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce endemic corruption or prevent economic decline (a drop of 8.5% in 2020), and which has recently enacted laws which make Mexico-US coordination on security and financial matters more difficult.
- 7.
Adapted from Pastor, ibid., p. 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
Database created by Henry Heilbroner through media and business reports. Database available on request.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
From the English version of the article published in Chinese in Air and Space Power Journal in Chinese. 2nd Semester 2014. pp. 79–93, https://www.williamjperrycenter.org/sites/default/files/publication_associated_files/China%27s%20Growing%20Relationship%20with%20Latin%20America%20and%20the%20Caribbean.pdf.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our appreciation to the following individuals whose insightful comments improved this chapter:Amitav Acharya, Akbar Ahmed, Jorge Heine, Eric Hershberg, Gilbert Rozman, Joseph Torigian, and Quansheng Zhao. We would particularly like to express our appreciation to Henry Heilbroner who prepared the database of Chinese infrastructure projects and contributed to the analysis.
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Goodman, L.W., Schneider, A. (2023). Conflict, Competition, or Collaboration? China and the United States in Latin America the Caribbean. In: Schneider, A., Teixeira, A.G. (eds) China, Latin America, and the Global Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18026-2_8
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