What LED to the Boom? Unpacking China's Development Cooperation in Latin America

Abstract

What led to the boom of Chinese development cooperation in Latin America? This article provides a systematic analysis of China’s foreign behavior, motives, and policies regarding development cooperation toward the region between 2000 and 2014. I propose a comparative framework that defines Chinese development cooperation as a tool of economic diplomacy. Drawing on empirical evidence from AidData’s Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset and Chinese white papers on foreign aid, the findings evidence that China was motivated by multiple and conjunctural factors in providing development cooperation. In the realm of theory, the article contributes to the literature on economic statecraft—filling in gaps in understanding the relationship between economics and politics. Empirically, it provides a set of tools for understanding the important role that development cooperation plays in a nation’s statecraft. Regarding Chinese foreign policy studies, it offers insight into the financial dimension of China’s international economic relations.

Maio | Ago. 2022

“…Liu, Xu e Fan (2020) argumentam que essas instituições são plataformas das ações de CID "com características chinesas", abrangendo doações, empréstimos sem juros, empréstimos concessionais e não concessionais, créditos para exportação e investimento, entre outros instrumentos. Não há uma forma singular nas operações de crédito chinesas, havendo diferentes formatos e graus variados entre ajuda externa e empréstimos a taxas de mercado (Malacalza, 2019). Nova Rota da Seda na América Latina: entre adesões e hesitações A despeito da redução dos empréstimos e financiamentos nos últimos anos, as operações de crédito do CDB e do Chexim, entre 2005 e 2017, excederam os financiamentos combinados do Banco Mundial e do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID) aos países da região (Koleski e Blivas, 2018).…”

China’s Foreign Aid Political Drivers: Lessons from a Novel Dataset of Mask Diplomacy in Latin America during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Considering that in Latin America and the Caribbean nine of the fifteen countries recognise Taiwan, it is logical that this is the key region in this diplomatic battle between China and Taiwan (Malacalza, 2019). In this sense, one of the main objectives of China's growing presence in this region is to achieve diplomatic recognition of these countries (Rodríguez, 2008).…”

“…Recent studies on China’s rise in Latin America, mostly based on qualitative data, argue that aid to the region has been affected by the need to secure natural resources (Creutzfeldt, 2016; Stallings, 2016; Sun, 2017), open new markets for China’s products (Creutzfeldt, 2016), isolate Taiwan (Maggiorelli, 2017; Malacalza, 2019), gain support from international organisations, and improve the appreciation of Chinese values and culture. Vadell (2019) states that the official discourse that frames the relationship between China and Latin America is based on the principles of South–South co-operation, in which aid is part of a co-operation framework that aims to promote development.…”

La reestructuración de la deuda argentina ante la pandemia global

“…Este fue canalizado a través de diversos proyectos de infraestructura, generación de energía y un swap entre los bancos centrales, que no incluía condicionalidades macroeconómicas significativas, si bien reforzaba el sesgo primarizador de la producción y contemplaba transferencias de tecnología que podían desplazar a las locales. Por cierto, menos que una excepcionalidad, esa política se enmarcó en el avance de China en América Latina a través de una activa diplomacia económica, que combinó ayuda y financiamiento para el desarrollo (Malacalza, 2019).…”