Between the crises the expanded Chinese presence in Latin America

Abstract

The arrival of an emerging China into a Latin America that had long been dominated by the United States was a critical development following the 2008 global financial crisis. This thesis contextualizes the rising superpower’s entry into a region that had not seen great power competition since the Cold War. It does so by measuring the expansion of Chinese economic presence in the region – as quantified by the Global Presence Index – through trade and investment, with a particular focus on the case countries of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The thesis explores the implications of different shifts in presence between each of the countries, with Brazil integrating significantly more with China than Colombia and Mexico in the same timeframe. It concludes with an assessment of the regional hegemonic replacement seen in Latin America throughout the 2010s, and a look to its role in the global US—China systemic rivalry.