China has just issued a policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean.
It is the second of its kind and comes eight years after the first.
The paper clarifies China’s Latin America and Caribbean policy for a new era in four parts.
First, it highlights the region’s strategic significance to China. Latin American and Caribbean countries are important emerging economies and members of the developing world.
The paper calls the region a rising force with huge development potentials and bright prospects.
The document then reviews relations with Latin America and the Caribbean since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Relations are in a new stage of comprehensive cooperation, with frequent high-level visits and political dialogues. Trade, investment, finance and other areas are developing rapidly. There are increasingly close cultural and interpersonal exchanges, as well as mutual support in international affairs. The establishment of the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in 2014 has provided a new platform for cooperation.
China is seeking to bring the partnership to new heights. The paper notes the new relationship has five features — sincerity and mutual trust in the political field; win-win economic cooperation; mutual learning in culture; close coordination in international affairs; as well as mutual reinforcement between China’s cooperation with the region as a whole and its bilateral relations with individual countries in the region.
The last part of the policy paper sets a course for strengthening cooperation in all fields: such as politics, economy, society, culture and people-to-people exchanges, international collaboration, peace, as well as security and judicial affairs.
