with Latin America has tended to be purely transactional. It went from hardly trading with the region at the turn of the century to overtaking the United States to become the top trading partner for South America, and the second almost everywhere else in Latin America. Annual goods trade between China and Latin America rose to $445bn in 2021, up from $12bn in 2000. But its relationship with the region appears to be evolving.
Latin American countries are also turning to the yuan for trade and to include in their central-bank reserves. On June 2nd Argentina doubled its currency-swap line with China, meaning that around a third of its central-bank reserves, which stand at $32bn, will effectively be in yuan. Last year, the yuan surpassed the euro to become the second-most important foreign currency in Brazil’s central-bank vaults.
China’s most recent strategy paper on Latin America, published in 2016, says it will “actively carry out military exchanges and co-operation”. Although the United States remains the primary military partner in the region, China has boosted engagement with law-enforcement agencies. It has trained police forces from countries including Argentina and Brazil, donated cars and investigative equipment to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and sold surveillance equipment to Ecuador.