A little over a week ago the first ministerial forum between China and the Community of Latin American States (CELAC) took place. This is the grouping that includes all of the nations in the Americas other than the US and Canada, and the dependent territories.
The event in Beijing was of some significance as it demonstrated China’s strategic intent to deepen, transition, and further develop a role in the Americas in a manner that reflects a confident perspective on its future position in the world. It followed from the endorsement of a new Chinese global foreign policy perspective in late 2014, visits last year by China’s President, Xi Jinping to Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba in mid-2014, and his meeting in July 2014 in Brazil with CELAC nations at the time of the BRICS summit before he travelled on to a separate summit with President Obama in California.
The overall context was provided last November when President Xi highlighted in the country’s highest level foreign policy forum China’s pursuit of “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.” This signalled Beijing’s diplomatic movement away from its traditional approach of ‘keeping a low profile’ while undertaking a ‘gradual rise’, towards, by implication, ‘brightness’ and
