Sino-Latin American Relations: A Comparison of Expert and Educated Youth Views of Latin America

Abstract

In this study we explore Chinese views of their country's rapidly growing ties with Latin America. We adopt a dual approach in this project. First, we examine the Chinese expert’s views of Latin America. Our analysis indicates that China’s overwhelming focus is on the country’s economic relationships with Latin America, while seeking to avoid overt political entanglements.  Trade and investment opportunities appear to dominate published accounts of this relationship. Second, we conducted an original survey of educated youth in a relatively large city in Eastern China. In general, we find educated youth also place great emphasis on economic relations, though as expected experts are far more engaged in Sino-Latin American relations. Educated youth positively evaluate relations, but express greater caution and skepticism. Both experts and educated youth value large and/or growing trading partners far more than small/stagnant relationships or trading rivals.