Pluralising the Meaning of China in Global International Relations

Coloma examines the bilateral relationship between China and Chile over the past decades and explores an approach that accounts for the plurality of political and ideological dimensions in international relations, particularly concerning non-Western and non-European countries. The book develops three key claims. First, two socialist countries can arrive at antagonistic understandings of socialism and yet articulate ideological convergences around other elements. Second, a communist country can obscure its political divergence from an anti-communist regime by redefining its ideological horizon. Third, the signing of China’s first free trade agreement and its upgrade can be understood as the articulation of political demands and the ideological concealment of antagonisms, rather than as a result of technocratic decisions informed by economic complementarities. These findings suggest that the significance of China’s presence in Latin America depends on how each country articulates the other as an element of its foreign policy and vice versa. It thus shifts our perspective away from dominant interpretations that reduce China to the image of a rising power encroaching on the backyard of the United States. An insightful book for researchers and academics in Global International Relations and Politics, as well as those interested in Latin America and China’s relations.