China’s Expansion into the Western Hemisphere

Increased trade between China and Latin America has generated uncertainty and nervousness for some in the West. China’s negotiation of a free trade agreement with Chile and the creation of numerous long-term contracts for Latin American raw materials and food commodities have raised questions both within the Western hemisphere and beyond. What are the consequences of China’s growing presence in the Western hemisphere? What do the Latin American countries expect to gain from China’s increasing economic and diplomatic overtures? How might this expanded Chinese-Latin trade relationship impact U.S. relations with China?

On April 30, the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion with Riordan Roett, director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Roett discussed his new book China’s Expansion into the Western Hemisphere: Implications for Latin America and the United States (Brookings Institution Press, 2008).

Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Diana Villiers Negroponte provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. Brookings Senior Fellow Richard Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, and Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, joined the discussion. After the program, Mr. Roett and the other participants took audience questions.