Commenting on Chinese Presidnet Xi Jinping’s current Latin America visit, Chen Xiaoyang said that China and the US should work on trilateral cooperation with Latin America and take it as a new way of developing a new type of big power relations between them.

While the U.S. pivot to Asia’s impact on Sino-U.S. relations receives widespread attention, a significant risk to bilateral relations can be seen through China’s interventions in Latin America. As Fernando Menéndez explains, China is creating a counterbalance to U.S. actions in the Asia-Pacific by heavily investing in countries like Brazil and Venezuela.

Despite the international attention given to China’s recent loans to Venezuela, such actions are consistent with China’s overall policy of seeking new opportunities for its own economic development. China walks a fine line between development trade relations with Latin American countries while trying not to alarm the United States.