Abstract

Las relaciones China-Mercosur y Chile. Ciclos hist. econ. soc. [online]. 2013, vol.21, n.42, pp.00-00. ISSN 1851-3735.

This article introduces the Chinese foreign policy and its relations with Latin America; then focuses on the two largest countries of Mercosur, Brazil and Argentina, plus Chile, all these countries established diplomatic relations with China between the early and mid 1970s. These three countries have opted for a pragmatic view on policy toward Beijing, mainly because the great place of the Chinese market in the commodities' exports from Brazil, Argentina and Chile, although the main South American country, Brazil, shares with China in international policy, the interest in the creation of counter-powers allowing to neutralize unipolarity that the superpower United States has pursued since the end of the Cold War. From the Chinese perspective, there is an important coordination with these three countries, which extends to the entire Latin American region, in fora such as APEC, WTO, and the United Nations. China has given different status to relations with these countries. However, Chinese and Latin American interests, as well as bilaterally with each of the Mercosur countries, will not necessarily be the same in the medium and long term. China's relationship with the countries of Mercosur is under doubt. The perceptions of Brazil and Argentina, which are its "strategic partners" and for different reasons, seem to agree that the P.R. of China is pursuing a realpolitik with them, away from the speech that Chinese South-South relations and from the spirit of a closer society of friendship.

Keywords : China; South America; Foreign policy; Emerging countries.

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