Long road ahead

After 10 years of China-LAC cooperation under the BRI, it is clear that there will be many future decades of promissory results and win-win scenarios

Since the Belt and Road Initiative was announced in 2013, its global presence has increased dramatically. As China's main cooperation instrument, particularly vis-a-vis developing countries and regions, the initiative has been able to enhance hundreds of policies and cooperation projects for countries, groups of countries and specific regions.

Under the heading of interconnectivity, the BRI has translated into thousands of infrastructure projects. These infrastructure projects have been critical in China's recent history since its reform and opening-up, specifically in its success in eradicating poverty.

The increasing global relevance of the initiative has been highly concerned by the United States and the European Union, among others. In several cases they have tried to reproduce the BRI's cooperation schemes, in other cases they have tried to undermine China's increasing global presence in the context of the "great power competition" highlighted by the Donald Trump administration and followed by US President Joe Biden since 2021. Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have been the center of the BRI's attention.

After 10 years, the BRI has had profound effects in the LAC, which was formally acknowledged as being part of the BRI in the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum in Santiago, Chile, in 2018. Since then, 21 LAC countries have adhered to the initiative.

From a quantitative perspective, the BRI has had a tremendous impact on LAC-China ties: LAC countries' trade with China increased over 50 percent during 2013-21, while Chinese overseas foreign direct investments accounted on average annually for $12.8 billion during 2013-22. China's employment generation in the LAC has been very significant. The existence of more than 40 Confucius Institutes in the LAC in 2023 reflects that China's presence in the region includes cooperation in culture, education, academics and technology, among many other items.

From a qualitative perspective, the China-LAC intensification of cooperation is particularly relevant for the LAC since it allows for new strategic cooperation with China, in addition to historical ties with other global partners such as the US and the EU. The China-CELAC Forum is significant for the LAC since it allows for deepening cooperation in infrastructure projects and dozens of cooperation fields that have been left aside by historical cooperation partners of the LAC: the Joint Plans of Action of CELAC since 2015 are particularly fruitful for the LAC since they allow for hundreds of cooperation programs with China. Several countries in the LAC have pursued strategic comprehensive partnership with China since 2013 and China has signed five free trade agreements with LAC countries — Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Nicaragua. Each cooperation reflects wide and profound concrete cooperation possibilities with China, bilaterally and regionally.

The Chinese activities in the LAC since 2013 and through the BRI reflect China's openness in allowing for bilateral, regional, and multilateral cooperation with countries there. In the last decade, China-LAC cooperation through the BRI has been growing in almost all imaginable fields, with important challenges.

As also highlighted by the Chinese leadership, a "high-quality BRI "requires monitoring, evaluation, and institutional modernization of LAC-China cooperation, which has become increasingly complex bilaterally and in light of the US-China confrontation. New diplomatic recognitions by LAC countries, such as by the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, in the last decade have also enriched the LAC-China potential.

In the case of LAC-China cooperation since the BRI and in the last decade, the institutional setting requires particular rethinking and reforms; since 2013 the dynamics of regional cooperation reflect plenty of new public, private, and academic institutions participating in LAC-China exchanges. Historical fields of cooperation such as agriculture, science and technology, trade, overseas foreign direct investment, infrastructure projects, culture, and tourism, but also new ones in telecommunications, the transfer of technology, renewable energy, think tanks, and on the environment, among many others, require learning processes and an improvement in quality.

Without doubt, the China-LAC cooperation under the BRI will have many future decades of promissory results; high-quality institutions, monitoring and evaluations will be fundamental for such successful and win-win scenarios.

The author is a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and coordinator of the university's Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.