History: The Long Trajectory of a Relationship yet to Be Fulfilled

Latin America is witnessing seismic shifts on the horizon. After a century of hegemonic presence of the Colossus of the North, the region has become increasingly relevant and a strategic area for China’s revived global economic, geopolitical, and diplomatic overtures, particularly in the last twenty years. Though much is still to unfold, particularly insofar as the rising rivalry between to the two most important economic powers in the world today, Latin America will certainly be an important part of these historical dynamics. But if the region is becoming increasingly important in regional, hemisphere and global disputes, to understand on-going and prospective events, one must remember that Chinese-Latin American relations have a long history of their own and though these have intensified in the recent decades, they are ground on important historical roots put in place before the rise of the United States in the Western hemisphere. Setting the stage for this book, the present chapter critically reviews the historical trajectory of interactions between China and Latin America in order to provide the main contours capable of illuminating the thematic and country-based analyses offered in the ensuing chapters in this much-needed volume.