Mapping different patterns of Chinese investments in Latin America

• In Event: Macroeconomía y Desarrollo

Abstract

How and why is China investing in Latin America? In the past twenty years, China has increased its presence in Latin America in several ways, raising questions related to how China is changing the game for the U.S in Latin America, the implications of Chinese investment for Latin America, and winners and losers in this Sino-Latin American relation. While some scholars have drawn the attention to the type of Chinese funds given to countries in Latin America that cannot easily access global capital markets, others have shed some light on bilateral relations in the context of the rise of leftist’s governments and the competing strategies between China and the U.S in Latin America. Yet, less attention has been paid to cross-national variations in the type of investment and country characteristics of the Sino-Latin American relations. We argue that China’s presence in Latin America is a multidimensional one, motivated by a long-term strategy and a function of each Latin American country’s attributes. Given Chinese longer-term strategic goals, we assume two things. First, China’s various investments would remain invariable, despite the unstable political and economic period that major partners in the region of Latin America are facing (e.g. Brazil, Venezuela). Second, China is not discriminating in favor of some autocratic regimes over democratic ones. In this study, we provide disaggregated data on China-Latin America finances and new data that specifies macroeconomic conditions, type of investment (including infrastructure projects), and host country conditions for Chinese investments in Latin America.

Authors

• Adriana M Boersner, University of Missouri

• Michael Hendricks, University of Missouri