Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 9, “Chinese Loong and Jaguar are getting closer and closer” – China Latin America “two-way rush” cooperation goes deeper and deeper
2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the official operation of the China Latin America Forum. From conception to reality, from concept to action, the China Latin America Forum has become the most important platform for promoting overall cooperation between China and Latin America, strengthening the alignment of development strategies between the two sides, and building a community with a shared future for China and Latin America.
Over the past decade, within the framework of the China Latin America Forum, China has joined hands with an increasing number of Latin American and Caribbean partners to jointly build a new five in one pattern of China Latin America relations, which includes sincere political mutual trust, win-win economic and trade cooperation, mutual learning and mutual learning in humanities, close cooperation in international affairs, overall cooperation, and mutual promotion of bilateral relations. This has pushed China Latin America cooperation to a new level.
“May the leopard and the Chinese Loong get closer and closer.” This is the common aspiration of more and more Latin American people. China and Latin America are crossing mountains and seas in both directions, accelerating on the road to modernization and constantly enriching the connotation and practice of the China Latin America community of shared future.
Continuous enhancement of political mutual trust
In the past 10 years, China and Latin America have fully utilized the forum platform to carry out exchanges of governance experience, sharing of development practices, and cultural exchange and mutual learning, promoting the stable and far-reaching development of China Latin America relations in the new era of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness, and benefiting the people. Up to now, the China Latin America Forum has successfully held three ministerial level meetings, and the “four carriages” of China and the Latin American and Caribbean Community have held eight rounds of foreign ministerial dialogues.
On January 29, 2024, the “China Latin America Development Cooperation and Knowledge Sharing” Dialogue – Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the “China Latin America Forum” was held in Beijing. Shen Jizhong
As the mechanism of the China Latin America Forum matures, the areas of cooperation covered by the forum are constantly expanding. At present, 43 specialized sub forums have been formed and operated between China and Latin America within the framework of the China Latin America Forum, covering various fields from agricultural production to technological innovation, from poverty alleviation and wealth creation to green development, from disaster management to defense cooperation, from think tank exchanges to anti-corruption law enforcement… China’s pragmatic cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean in various fields has achieved fruitful results, and political mutual trust has been further deepened.
In the view of Sun Yanfeng, a researcher at the Latin American Institute of the China Institute of Modern International Relations, over the past decade, the China Latin America Forum has evolved from a conceptual framework to a practical cooperation mechanism, promoting bilateral cooperation between China and Latin American countries and overall cooperation between China and Latin America. Zhou Zhiwei, a researcher at the Latin American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that the China Latin America Forum has consolidated the consensus of sincere cooperation between both sides and improved the efficiency of practical cooperation. Expanding and strengthening the China Latin America Forum is in line with the common interests of both sides.
Economic and trade cooperation continues to expand
Since December 2024, large container ships loaded with Chilean cherries have crossed the Pacific Ocean and successively arrived at Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and other ports, opening a new season of “cherries freedom” as the Chinese Spring Festival approaches.
On December 26, 2024, at a large supermarket in Xiqing District, Tianjin, customers were shopping for newly arrived Chilean cherries. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Fanyue)
According to the latest data from the Chilean central bank, Chile’s export value exceeded the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2024, with cherry exports increasing by 51.4% compared to the previous year. Thanks to its huge market demand, China has been the largest export destination for Chilean cherries for several consecutive years. At the same time, more and more Latin American specialty agricultural products such as Ecuadorian bananas, Nicaraguan honey, and Honduran white shrimp are constantly enriching the “Chinese dining table”.
China and Latin America have highly complementary economies, with China firmly ranking as the second largest trading partner in Latin America and the largest trading partner of countries such as Chile, Brazil, and Peru. Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and other five Latin American countries have become China’s free trade partners. Since last year, China has also signed early harvest arrangements for a free trade agreement with Honduras and substantially completed negotiations with Peru to upgrade the free trade agreement.
Ten years ago, China proposed to achieve a trade scale of 500 billion US dollars between China and Latin America and a direct investment stock of 250 billion US dollars in Latin America within 10 years. Ten years have passed, and China Latin America economic and trade cooperation has achieved remarkable results: in the first three quarters of 2024, the trade volume of goods between China and Latin America reached 427.4 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, and is expected to exceed 500 billion US dollars for the whole year; As of the end of 2023, China’s direct investment stock in Latin America reached 600.8 billion US dollars, making Latin America the second largest destination for China’s overseas investment.
Over the past year, driven by the initiative of jointly building the “the Belt and Road”, China Latin America practical cooperation has continued to advance, and more innovative projects have been launched. In January 2024, Phoenix Industrial Park, the first environmentally friendly light industry park in Latin America with 5G network coverage, opened in Trinidad and Tobago, contributing to the country’s diversified economic transformation strategy; In November 2024, the Qiankai Port in Peru officially opened, significantly reducing the direct flight time from Peru to Asia, saving logistics costs and creating employment opportunities, becoming a new engine for Peru’s economic growth.
This is a container with the words’ From Qian Kai to Shanghai ‘taken on December 18, 2024 at Yangshan Port in Shanghai. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe)
Sun Yanfeng said that in the past 10 years, pragmatic cooperation between China and Latin America has entered the “fast lane”, walking hand in hand on the road of mutual benefit. With China effectively aligning its development strategies with more and more Latin American countries, the level of cooperation between China and Latin America has also improved, and greater potential will be unleashed in the future. Ronnie Lins, Director of the Brazilian Center for China Studies, said that the constantly developing Latin American China partnership represents more opportunities for Latin American countries to independently achieve economic modernization and promote more sustainable development.
The mutual understanding between the people is deepening day by day
On June 8, 2024, the exhibition “Tracing the Jaguar: Ancient Mexican Civilization” was unveiled at the Chengdu Museum in Sichuan Province. As an important totem of ancient America, the image of the leopard appears in the animal shaped leopard man stone carvings of the Olmec civilization, leopard patterned pottery bowls of the Maya civilization, and mud painted murals of the Teotihuacan civilization, allowing Chinese audiences to experience the brilliance and diversity of ancient Latin American civilization thousands of miles away up close.
On November 3, 2023, visitors watched the exhibition of ancient Mexican civilization at the Liaoning Provincial Museum, featuring the Rain God pottery statue. (Photo by Yao Jianfeng, Xinhua News Agency reporter)
On December 23, 2024, Omar Park in the center of Panama City was decorated with lights and warm atmosphere. Nine groups of Chinese colored lanterns with different themes, such as Chinese Loong, panda and palace lantern, compete with each other. Many Panamanians wear festival costumes and walk among colorful colored lanterns. This Chinese lantern exhibition, which landed for the first time in Central America, added a festive atmosphere to the celebration of the New Year for Panamanian people.
Over the past 10 years, within the framework of the China Latin America Forum, China and Latin America have built a comprehensive, multi-level, and wide-ranging dialogue and cooperation network. Cultural exchanges between China and Latin America have flourished, mutual learning of civilizations has deeply penetrated people’s hearts, and the foundation of people to people connectivity has been continuously strengthened.
Brand activities such as the “China Latin America Cultural Exchange Year” and the “Bridge of the Future” China Latin America Youth Leaders Training and Exchange Camp are rich and colorful. In Dunhuang, Gansu, representatives of Latin American youth reminisce about the former prosperity of the Silk Road; In Wuhan, Hubei, Latin American media reporters experienced the advanced intelligence of air rail trains; In Lingqiu, Shanxi, young Latin American diplomats went into the fields to learn about rural revitalization experience.
The ‘Chinese fever’ continues to heat up in Latin America, with a total of 57 Confucius Institutes or Confucius Classrooms located in 26 Latin American countries; The “Cross Ocean Dialogue” between China and Latin America’s National Treasures and the Inca Civilization Special Exhibition have just concluded at the Nanshan Museum in Shenzhen. Gold products and bronze statues from the ancient Shu civilization site have appeared at the Inca Museum in the ancient city of Cusco, Peru; China has resumed or added multiple direct air routes with countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba, building the “China Latin America Air Silk Road” for business exchanges and tourism cooperation between the two sides; China has also dispatched medical and agricultural expert teams to Latin American countries to promote “small but beautiful” livelihood projects such as bamboo and mushroom grass, and to help promote regional development and revitalization.
On April 18, 2024, at the United Nations Chinese Language Day event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a teacher from the Confucius Institute at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro performed the guzheng. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Tiancong)
Zhou Zhiwei stated that the cultural exchange mechanism established by the China Latin America Forum continues to enrich and expand, which helps deepen each other’s correct understanding, achieve the cooperation goals of deepening traditional friendship, consolidating broad consensus, and coordinating global governance, and further amplify the voices of countries in the global South. Daniel Grimaldi, Executive Director of the Chile 21 Foundation, stated that mutual learning between Latin American and Chinese civilizations can enrich communication channels, promote the development of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect and open dialogue, and jointly achieve modernization.
“Under the background of the accelerated evolution of a century of changes and the accelerated rise of the global South, Chinese Loong and Jaguar are getting closer and closer, and they are working together to achieve development and revitalization and maintain fairness and justice.” Sun Yanfeng said.