China's Strategic Partnerships in Latin America

China’s strategic partnerships in Latin America underscores China’s efforts to establish strategic partnerships in its international relations. Xu fills a gap in the literature on cooperation and partnerships in the international arena by establishing an alternative definition of strategic partnership, which he uses to analyse the China–Latin America relationship. * International Affairs * Yanran Xu’s application of the comparative method and a combination of Chinese, English, and Spanish source material makes this work a valuable contribution to scholarly understanding of China’s strategic partnerships in Latin America, the relative balance in those relationships, and PRC engagement with the region in general. This study is an important reference for scholars of both Chinese foreign policy and Latin American studies. -- R. Evan Ellis, Strategic Studies Institute, United States Army War College This timely volume adds much to the existing literature on China–Latin America relations. Yanran Xu carefully considers China’s energy and other interests in the region within the context of Beijing’s broader foreign policy objectives. She does so while highlighting Chinese firms’ often diverse approaches to relationship-building and oil diplomacy in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. This is a must-read for those interested in better understanding China’s activity in the region’s major oil and gas sectors. -- Margaret Myers, Inter-American Dialogue In this groundbreaking study, Chinese scholar Yanran Xu delves deep to scrutinize the outcomes of China’s declared ‘strategic partnerships’ with key Latin American countries, assessing with clarity and honesty both win-win scenarios and disturbing asymmetries where the more powerful partner has proven to be the primary beneficiary. As a relative newcomer, China’s commercial relations with the four countries studied here—Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—are very much a work in progress, adjusting to changing market conditions, fast-paced local political currents, and painful lessons learned from past mistakes. As Yanran Xu cogently argues, to up its game, China will have to improve the sophistication of its political risk assessments, and state-owned enterprises must honor codes of social responsibility if they are to maintain their rights of access. Yanran Xu’s well-documented conclusions should guide future studies: China faces a long road ahead as it searches for ways to forge genuinely symmetrical strategic partnerships with Latin America nations. -- Richard E. Feinberg, University of California, San Diego