From July 30 to August 3, three foreign ministers of the Rio Group, Guillermo Fernandez De Soto of Colombia, Rosario Green Macias of Mexico, and Maria Soledad Alvear Valenzuela of Chile made a historic first visit to China, marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of relations.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and State Councilor Wu Yi successively held talks with the three ministers. This will accelerate the long-term and sound development of Sino-Latin American relations.
China has been stressing the importance of its ties with Latin America for many years. Presently, it has diplomatic ties with 19 of 33 countries in the region, accounting for 95 percent of the total area, 88 percent of population and 98 percent of GDP.
Relations have developed considerably in the past decade through exchanges at the highest political level, which has created a climate of mutual trust and understanding in which overall development of ties can be further promoted.
A number of high-level leaders of China have visited Latin America. The late President Yang Shangkun made the first state visit in May 1990, setting forth China's principles for developing cooperative relations. In 1992, Premier Li Peng participated in the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Brazil. He met with the leaders of a number of Latin American countries, promoting mutual understanding and expanding Chinese prestige.
In November 1993, President Jiang Zemin was invited to visit Brazil and Cuba. The visit to Brazil was of great significance in promoting strong ties between China and the region.
Since then, leaders such as Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Qiao Shi have made successive goodwill visits to Latin American countries. In his speech at the Mexican Foreign Ministry in 1995, Li Peng reiterated the basic principles of the Chinese government on Sino-Latin American ties, and put forward the focal points of bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
In recent years, more than 10 Latin American heads of state have made official visits to China, such as Presidents Salinas and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, Carlos Saul Menem of Argentine, President Eduardo Frei of Chile, President Fernando Enrique Cardoso of Brazil. These visits have contributed greatly to further mutual understanding and cooperation.
China and Latin American countries have cooperated well and consulted closely on international issues. China, as the only developing country among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, has played an important role in defending world peace and safety, and protecting the rights and interests of developing countries.
China has given strong backing to Pacific countries as Mexico, Chile and Peru to join APEC, while many Latin American countries have strongly supported China in its bid to join the WTO and achieve national reunification.
While steadily developing mutual political relations, the two sides have also worked hard to promote economic, trade and technological cooperation.
The Chinese economy has experienced high-speed growth since the opening up, and continues to offer massive potential, bright market prospects and a favorable investment climate.
The Latin American countries have been involved in their own economic reform programs since the mid-1980s, helping to establish an effective economic system and an open market. These markets, and investment possibilities, are enlarging daily.
Although far apart geographically, China and Latin America are complementary in terms of natural resources, products and investment opportunities. Latin America is becoming an important market for Chinese goods. Brazil, Argentine and Mexico are the main trade partners of China. Machinery, dry goods, clothing and light industrial products are main Chinese export commodities.
Bilateral trade has enjoyed rapid growth since 1990. At that time, the bilateral trade volume was US$2.29 billion. This rose to US$6.73 billion in 1996 and US$ 8.26 billion in 1999. In the first six months of this year, the volume stood at US$5.26 billion, up 60.3 percent over the same period of 1999.
Mutual cooperation in trade and technology is rapidly expanding. In June 1996, Wu Yi, the then Minister of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation visited seven countries as the head of a trade group to explore new channels of cooperation.
China has so far set up more than 150 sole and jointly owned enterprises in 20 countries of the region, with a total investment of US$300 million. Financial cooperation has also begun. The first branch of the Bank of China in the region was set up in Panama in 1994 to help promote bilateral trade.
Being developing economies, China and Latin American countries share similar levels of technology, offering good opportunities for cooperation. Exchanges in science and technology and even hi-technology have begun in recent years. China has signed governmental agreements on scientific and technological cooperation with several countries and established a mixed committee of scientific and technological cooperation with Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentine.
A number of regional organizations in Latin America have played important roles in economic and political affairs. China has close ties with these organizations. China established contacts with CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) in 1983 and became an observer to the organization a year later. It became the first Asian observer to ALADI (Asociacisn Latinoamericana de Integracisn). China has the closest contacts with the Rio Group. The two sides consult closely at the United Nations.
Ties with those Latin American countries with which China has no diplomatic relations as yet have been adjusted and improved, and bilateral trade has been promoted. In 1994, China established a trade representative office in the capital of the Dominican Republic, and in 1996, set up the China Trade Development Office in Panama; With countries such as Haiti and Costa Rica, China shares the intent to establish reciprocal commercial or trade offices to enhance mutual understanding and create conditions for the eventual establishment of formal diplomatic relations.
There still exist questions and challenges. China and Latin American countries still do not have a good understanding of each other's rules, laws, cultures, products or markets. But while Latin American countries seek multi-diplomacy, and the world is moving towards multi-polarization, the two sides have much room to deepen mutual relations and strive for a peaceful and prosperous world in the 21st century.
