Presentation of Dragonomics: Political and Economic Integration between China and Latin America
March 23, 2022 marked the virtual presentation of the Spanish-language version of Dragonomics: How Latin America is Maximizing (or Missing Out On), China’s International Development Strategy,” written by Dr. Carol Wise, professor of the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California.
Wise’s book explores the impact that China’s growth has had on Latin America since the early 2000s, focusing primarily on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. Her study also traces the evolution of the political and economic ties between China and these countries, and analyzes the varying degrees of success across different sectors and projects.
The event featured comments from Francisco Urdinez, associate professor at the Institute of Political Sciences and researcher affiliated at the Center for International Studies and the Center for Asian Studies of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, who highlighted the book’s contribution to the international political literature and its current relevance in a potential new cycle of commodities. Also, Dr. Cynthia Sanborn, a researcher affiliated at the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies and professor in the academic department of Social and Political Sciences at UP, highlighted the importance of government policies in order to have a stable trade relation with China, as in the cases of Peru and Chile.
Finally, Dr. Carol Wise pointed out the relevance of the commodity boom and how it stood as an opportunity for Latin American countries to establish trade relations with China. While Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have been exporting the same commodities since 1970, were the small open economies like Chile, Peru and Costa Rica, the ones that created new trading relations with China.