Latin America-China Relations : A Review of Recent Literature (2010-2020)
This paper reviews the literature on relations between the People's Republic of China and Latin America and the Caribbean from 2010 to 2020, based on a systematic bibliographic review. The core contribution of the paper is the consideration and contrast between U.S., Chinese, and Latin American approaches. English language works tend to be influenced by scholarly paradigms from International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE), whereas these are supplemented by a variety of additional perspectives in the Latin American literature. The study contends that Latin American interpretations of China’s relations with the region are the product of a series of conceptual traditions and epistemic networks that differentiate Latin American work from that emerging in the English-speaking world and in China. In addition, the paper concludes that by frequently casting China-Latin America relations in light of a 'triangular relationship' between China, the United States, and Latin America, much of the literature generates a series of misunderstandings which portray Latin American and the Caribbean as a homogenous and unified area