Latin American Strategic Autonomy Towards China

This volume offers a new explanation as to why Latin American and Caribbean governments respond so differently to the growing presence in the Western Hemisphere of the People’s Republic of China. Rather than treating the region as a passive recipient of Chinese influence, this book demonstrates that domestic institutional conditions, state capacity, political stability and economic fundamentals systematically shape how governments interpret, negotiate and position themselves toward Chinese diplomatic engagement.

Drawing on a large corpus of diplomatic speeches, topic modelling, set-theoretic comparison and focused case studies of Chile, Venezuela and Mexico, the volume identifies four distinct response profiles and traces the mechanisms that produce them. It further shows that all autonomy strategies operate within a domain-differentiated constraint environment structured by US hemispheric preponderance, where the costs of engaging China vary sharply across policy domains.

The volume makes for essential reading for scholars and advanced students in international relations, international political economy and Latin American studies, providing a rigorous framework for understanding how smaller states navigate great-power competition under structural constraint.

Juan Pablo Sims Seve is a Professor in the Faculty of Government and a Researcher at the Centre of International Relations Studies, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a PhD in International Politics from Fudan University, China. His research lies at the intersection of international relations, international political economy and global governance, with a particular focus on Latin America, regional integration, strategic autonomy and great-power competition. His work examines how Latin American countries navigate external pressure, international hierarchy and changing global power dynamics, including in their relations with China and other major powers.

Brice Tseen Fu Lee is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and is affiliated with the Faculty of Government at Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He earned his PhD in International Politics from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, China, where his research examined hedging, dependency and development in Southeast Asia. His broader research interests include international relations, international political economy, Chinese foreign policy, global governance and Global South co-operation, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia, Latin America and China’s engagement with the developing world.