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Introduction
2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Chile and China; by then, these relations will have become the deepest ever. Both countries will have much to celebrate as the efforts made to develop their ties are paying off.
Back in April 2019, Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera, visited China and invited local companies to invest in Chile to make the Andean country their “business hub” in Latin America (“Chile to China,” 2019a). This visit took place during the “trade war” between China and the USA that put Chilean diplomacy in an embarrassing position. A few weeks earlier, the US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, had visited Santiago, during which he criticized China's “nefarious actions” and “predatory” lending practices in Latin America and asked the Chilean government to call off its 5G contracts with Huawei (Emol, “Mike Pompeo advierte a Chile sobre China y Huawei,” 2019a). The Chinese Ambassador to Chile Xu Bu responded in El Mercurio, the major local newspaper, calling Pompeo a “hypocrite” and accusing the USA of acting in its interest at the expense of current global challenges (Bu, 2019)[1].
President Piñera's itinerary in China was then revised, and his visit to a Huawei factory in Shenzhen was canceled. This minor concession contrasts with the recent efforts of Chilean diplomacy to develop economic ties with the Asia-Pacific region in general and with China in particular (Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile, 2019).
This incident also shows how Chinese influence in Latin America is evolving. In the past decade, China has been focusing mainly on the largest economies in the region – Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela – but lately, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has revealed itself as a diplomatic instrument – or at least a mise en scène – to enhance bilateral relations with small and medium countries in the region. The two countries signed the “Memorandum of understanding between Chile and China within the framework of BRI” on November 2, 2018 (Reuters, “Chile to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” 2018a). The memorandum will come into force in Chile after its adoption by a presidential decree and its official publication at some point in 2020.
It is well known that oil from Brazil and...