Despite change in the political landscape of Latin America in recent years, the region's relations with China has remained solid, political observers have said.
Argentina has a new leadership; Peru will soon have a a new president from a new political party; Brazil and Venezuela are undergoing political strife.
Observers believe that the solid foundation of mutual trust, strong complementarity between their economies and shared confidence in the future will lead to stability in China-Latin America relations.
AN ENDURING RELATIONSHIP
Political contact and economic cooperation between China and Latin America have increased notably from the start of the 21st century.
China is now Latin America's second-largest trade partner and an important source of investment. In 2015 bilateral trade reached 236.5 billion U.S. dollars and China's nonfinancial direct investment in Latin America surpassed 21.4 billion dollars, according to Chinese figures.
China and Latin America are strongly complementary to each other in economy and trade. While Latin American countries depend heavily on the export of agricultural products and raw materials to China, the Asian country offers abundant investment and advanced experience in infrastructure construction, said Sun Yanfeng, assistant director of the Department of Latin American Studies at China's Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
In recent years, trade between the two sides has suffered from the global recession and drop in the prices of raw materials, giving rise to trade frictions. The political uncertainty in some Latin American countries have also cast cloud on the future of ties between the two sides.
However, considering the solid foundation of equality, mutual respect and pragmatism of this link, regardless of ideological differences, there will be no substantial changes in cooperation in the future. Both sides need each other for social stability and economic sustainability.
China "doesn't want to intervene in politics or tell leaders how to govern. That's a stark contrast from the U.S., which has a long history of intervening in Latin American politics," Patrick Gillespie, a correspondent for CNN Money, has written.
