Beijing Turns Its Eye Toward Latin America

The uncertain tariff situation with the U.S. seems to have impelled Beijing to reach out to other regions of the world, most pointedly Latin America.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the opening ceremony of the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum of China and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Beijing on May 13, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

Despite the pause in President Donald Trump’s tariff pressure on China, Beijing knows how vulnerable its economy is to a trade war with the United States. In an effort to find alternatives to the U.S. relationship, China has launched a charm offensive the world over, most pointedly in Washington’s backyard, Latin America.

With Latin American trade in mind, Beijing has convened meetings of the China–Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum. Beijing launched the group in 2015. At the most recent meetings in May, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reminded delegates from the 30 countries gathered in Beijing how much China–CELAC trade has increased in the years since the forum was inaugurated. In 2024, it was equivalent to $515 billion—still less than China–U.S. trade, but certainly not an insignificant amount.

Xi also touted China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) and pledged a 66 billion yuan (about $9.2 billion) credit line for fresh infrastructure investment. It is an attractive amount to less-than-fully developed societies in Latin America and the Caribbean. But as a sign of China’s other severe economic problems, Xi’s recent offer was less than half of what China pledged in 2015.

Credit lines and the glitter of the BRI were not all that Xi offered at the forum. He promised both Brazil and Colombia that China would buy more of their exports, and that in addition to his pledge, he would encourage both private and state-owned Chinese firms to invest more in the two countries. Brazil particularly welcomed these promises, because that country and its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have positioned themselves to deliver agricultural products to China should a trade war with the United States force China to cut back on heretofore significant U.S. agricultural imports.

As part of Beijing’s courtship of Latin American trade ties, Xi also announced that Beijing will offer the nationals of five Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay—visa-free entry into China for one year. Not coincidentally, all of these countries are major agricultural exporters.

No doubt Xi was especially pleased to announce that Colombia had signed a joint cooperation plan with the BRI. Colombia’s foreign minister, Laura Sarabia, described the decision in glowing terms, saying it was the country’s “boldest step in decades.” China is second only to the United States in trade with Colombia, and China has already surpassed the United States as a source of imports into the country.

Although more than 20 Latin American countries are among the 150 nations participating in China’s BRI, the new presence of Colombia is especially important to Beijing because Panama recently announced its decision to leave the program when its membership expires in about two years. Beijing has blamed this decision on pressure from Washington, but the move is otherwise entirely consistent with the behavior of other nations that have discovered how a BRI affiliation comes with terms and conditions that can be burdensome.

The meetings could have been a diplomatic win for Beijing. Although trade issues remain ambiguous and Latin America, even with the Caribbean, cannot make up for lost trade with the United States, China nonetheless appears to have made some progress in moving away from its dependence on the United States, should it become necessary. So far, the Trump administration has said nothing about China’s actions or those of the nations involved with the China–CELAC Forum.

In a purely economic light, things look less like a triumph. The arrangements proposed by Xi will impose costs on a weakened Chinese economy that can ill afford them, and from Beijing’s point of view, the conclusions of the forum hardly bind Latin America to China, even when put in the best possible light. Indeed, Brazil’s president went out of his way, while still in Beijing, to advise his fellow delegates to avoid depending on any other country, including China.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.