#StopLossStrategies
🇨🇳🤝🌎 China expands its influence in Latin America through economic cooperation, not military power
While the U.S. applies aggressive diplomacy based on security and hard power, China has opted for a more effective strategy in Latin America: economic cooperation, noted academic Rodolfo Villavicencio López (UNAM) during the International Meetings of Coparmex.
🔹 Keys to Chinese expansion:
• Investments in mega infrastructure projects.
• Increasing participation in regional and global trade.
• Focus on raw materials: soy, beef, copper, iron, oil, and lithium.
• China’s imports: manufactured goods.
🔸 Figures that reflect the change:
• China-LAC trade:
- $14 billion in 2000 → $500 billion in 2022
- Projection: $700 billion by 2035
• China is already the top trading partner of South America and the second for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
• 38.6% of economic cooperation in the region comes from China; the U.S. contributes only 18.6%.
🛑 In contrast, the U.S. has conditioned international aid on security issues, especially during the Trump era.
Villavicencio emphasized the need for Latin America to think in the medium and long term, establishing sustainable strategic alliances, not ad hoc agreements.
💼 At the close of the event, Juan José Sierra Álvarez (Coparmex) urged to internationalize Mexican SMEs, simplify procedures, and ratify treaties:
“Mexico should not be just a spectator of the global economy. Where others see barriers, we see bridges.”