Forum marks first decade of collaboration

As economic and social ties grow rapidly, the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum, or China-CELAC Forum, celebrated its 10th anniversary last week.

Since its inception in 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Brazil, the forum has facilitated more than 90 cooperative events, strengthening ties between China and the LAC region through trade, investment and partnerships across multiple industries. Trade between China and the region nearly doubled to almost half a trillion dollars at that time.

“In recent years, as China has become increasingly prominent internationally, it has developed a range of multilateral cooperation mechanisms to strengthen ties with other regions of the world,” said Sebastian Schulz, a researcher at the National University of La Plata in Argentina and a fellow at the university’s Center for Chinese Studies.

“The aim of these initiatives is to create space for dialogue and partnership in areas such as trade, finance, culture, society, education and technology.”

Trade facilitation has been the forum’s most important contribution, said Renzo Burotto, a historian at the University of Chile. As a result of the forum’s work, China has become the largest trading partner for several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.

“Now that China has learned from its integration and merger experience, it has positioned itself as an irreplaceable trading partner, strengthened commercial and financial institutions at bilateral and multilateral levels with Latin American countries, and aligned industrial and development policies with the region’s export demand,” Burotto said.

The forum has helped China strengthen existing free trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. At the same time, it has facilitated Chinese investment in infrastructure projects in Latin America by providing a channel for identifying opportunities and coordinating priorities.

CELAC was established in 2010 to facilitate the integration of the economies of some 33 member states in the LAC region.

The forum was born four years later when Xi attended a meeting of regional leaders in Brazil on July 17, 2014, a year after Xi launched China’s Belt and Road Initiative to improve connectivity between countries in multiple regions.

In January 2015, the first meeting of the foreign ministers of the forum’s member states took place in Beijing. The participants signed the first cooperation plan, which included provisions to promote infrastructure development.

Trade between China and Latin America has increased dramatically.

Between 2000 and 2020, annual trade between the two sides skyrocketed from $12 billion to $315 billion, a 26-fold increase, according to the World Economic Forum. In 2022, trade amounted to about $450 billion.

Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the anniversary at a press conference on July 17 and highlighted the 90 events organized through the forum.

Continuous progress

“Through the joint efforts of both sides, the past decade has seen continuous progress in building a China-LAC community with a shared future. The China-LAC relationship has opened a new era characterized by equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and greater benefits for the people,” he said.

Lin noted that China has signed New Silk Road cooperation agreements with 22 countries in the region and annual trade now amounts to nearly $500 billion.

China was pursuing “two-track cooperation,” Schulz said. “On the one hand, this is done through bilateral agreements such as those signed under strategic partnerships, the Belt and Road Initiative or free trade agreements. On the other hand, the modalities, guiding principles and objectives of the relations are defined regionally within the framework of the China-CELAC Forum.”

Despite concerns that may arise in individual countries, Burotto said Latin America must maintain strong relations with both China and traditional partners. He called for using the platform to address mutual interests and concerns.

“Strengthening Latin America’s engagement with China could demonstrate not only the interdependence of a shared future, but also the high costs and counterproductive impact of decoupling or reducing risks from China due to political pressure,” Burotto said.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.