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China-Latin America relations

China-Latin America relations
News, features and updates on Beijing's relations with various Latin American nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela and more.
Photo: NurPhoto via AFP
Brazil

UnionPay to link Chinese payment apps to Brazil’s Pix after US tariffs

Central banks stay silent on pilot that would let tourists scan and pay weeks after Washington taxed the system.

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Currencies

Argentina extends US$19 billion China currency swap despite US pressure

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US-China relations

US sanctions Cuba’s military representative in Beijing over China procurement

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Banking & finance

Brazil to become regular borrower in China, treasury official says

Brasilia cannot guarantee debut will happen this year, but wants it repeated to give companies a yuan benchmark to aim for.

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Brazil intends to sell yuan bonds in China every year, a senior Brazilian treasury official said on Wednesday. Photo: Getty Images
Mainland China

Bachelet-led panel urges Latin America not to choose sides in US-China rivalry

ECLAC commission says the region should leverage critical minerals but recognises limits imposed by US security dominance.

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United States

Cuban spy-base allegations, new Trump tariffs: 7 Latin America relations reads

From global soybean market updates to China’s best trade partners, here are highlights from the SCMP’s foreign correspondents in July 2026.

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Colombia

Chinese executive filmed taking cash on Colombia metro project

Subcontractor accuses China Harbour managers of demanding cash to release payments on Bogota metro project.

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The first line of the Bogota Metro is expected to begin commercial operations in 2028 after decades of planning and political debate. Photo: Handout
Hong Kong

Chile’s Kast courts China day after US hits exports with forced labour tariff

Chilean president, who campaigned on aligning Chile with Trump, meets Beijing delegation as his party claims Washington cannot be trusted.

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Electric & new energy vehicles

Brazil is now the world’s biggest buyer of Chinese cars: China customs

Purchases hit US$5.2 billion in five months, pushing the sector’s trade gap to its widest since records began in 1997.

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Uruguay

Brazil turns to China trade deal after Trump tariffs, as years of resistance end

Xi and Lula agree to fast track Mercosur trade talks, endorsing a deal Brasilia fought to bury when Uruguay first proposed it.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (left), seen here with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia, Brazil, in November, 2024. The pair have agreed to accelerate negotiations for a trade agreement between China and Mercosur. Photo: Xinhua
Mainland China

Trump, tariffs and ties with China at stake in Brazilian presidential race

Polls show Beijing-friendly incumbent Lula neck and neck with Washington’s favoured candidate ahead of closely watched October election.

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left), seen here with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in May 2025, is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term as leader of the South American country. Photo: AFP
US-China trade war

US senators clash over scope of Chinese connected-vehicle ban

Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of US Senate Committee on Commerce, warns substantial revisions will be needed before bill can become law.

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Shanghai

China vows to defend Brazil’s sovereignty as Trump’s 25% tariff bites

Wang Yi tells Brazilian foreign minister Beijing backs Brazil’s sovereignty, and asks for support on ‘China’s own core interests’ in return.

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Americas and the Caribbean

Chile wants US$100 billion to break China’s grip on its copper

Chile’s foreign minister says the copper market is too concentrated, but refining more at home means competing with Chinese smelters.

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Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna . Photo GETTY IMAGES.
Middle East

Brazil widens lead over US in China’s soybean market despite Trump-Xi deal

China’s Brazilian soybean imports up 13.7 per cent in June compared to a year earlier; US figures fell 20.6 per cent over the same period.

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Imported soybeans from Brazil are seen in a cargo vessel at a port in Yantai, China. China’s Brazilian soybean imports are up by 13.7 per cent in June compared to a year earlier. Photo: AFP
Iran

US claims 3 China-linked spy sites in Cuba monitoring American military activity

State Department report alleges Beijing and Moscow regard Cuba-based facilities as among their ‘most critical foreign listening posts’.

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Hong Kong

China rejects US, Panamanian claims of ‘weaponising’ ship inspections

Beijing cites data showing Panama-flagged vessels suffered multiple serious accidents in Chinese waters this year.

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Germany

A year into Trump’s tariffs, Brazil trades less with US and more with China

Trading report lands as USTR weighs extra 25 per cent levy and Flavio Bolsonaro tells hearing that Lula ‘licks China’s boots’.

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A worker washes coffee beans at a plantation near Pocos de Caldas, Brazil. Brazilian coffee exporters now sell most of their produce to Europe. Photo: AP
United States

Why Peru wants to shift its relationship with China beyond raw mineral supplies

Lima is courting Chinese investment as it looks to a ‘new phase’ in their economic relationship, the country’s ambassador tells a forum.

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US-China relations

America’s first sphere of influence becomes the test of its power at 250

Two centuries after the Monroe Doctrine, China is testing US influence in the hemisphere where it first projected power.

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United States

Aid for Venezuela, China-Colombia ties: 7 Latin America relations reads

From Argentina’s move towards Beijing to Lula’s beef deal, here are highlights from the SCMP’s foreign correspondents in June 2026.

A Brazilian rescuer works in the aftermath of earthquakes in Venezuela. Photo: Reuters
Venezuela

‘Venezuela is our home’: Chinese Venezuelans rally after earthquakes

Merchants across the country transformed shops, warehouses and community networks into a relief effort after the deadliest quakes in decades.

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Relief supplies collected on Margarita Island await transport to earthquake-hit communities. Signs in Spanish and Chinese identify the donations as coming from Venezuela’s Chinese community. Photo: Handout
Venezuela

China pledges extra US$14.7 million in earthquake relief to Venezuela

Beijing is also providing satellite images of the affected areas, as Chinese businesses and overseas communities in the country pitch in.

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Venezuelan crisis

In Venezuela, China’s oil-for-loan deals run into huge US-led debt restructuring

Beijing’s influence in Caracas seen fading, with Washington controlling Venezuela’s oil revenues and debt overhaul, potentially triggering a stand-off.

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European Union

EU pitches Brazil a ‘more beneficial’ rare earths deal than US or China

EU’s Jozef Sikela promises refining investment and technology transfer, in a race for Brazilian minerals that the US and China already lead.

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European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela and Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Marcio Elias Rosa, at the opening of the Brazil-European Union Investment Forum in Brasilia, Brazil, on Tuesday. Photo: EPA
Australia

US targets Cuba mining sector to block use of China-linked supply chains

Washington revealed sanctions on foreign-backed mining ventures on Tuesday, which Havana slammed for being ‘dishonest and mendacious’.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on Tuesday against Cuba's state-owned mining company GeoMinera, which oversees foreign-backed mining ventures. Photo: AP
Colombia

China extends hand to Colombia’s Trump-backed president-elect

Beijing offers to work with de la Espriella in spite of his firm’s legal clash over the metro with a Chinese group and his US realignment vow.

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Artificial intelligence

Latin America and Europe are bystanders in the US-China AI race: Lula adviser

Brazil’s Celso Amorim tells a Rio conference the Global South must answer via Brics, casting rare earths and data as matters of sovereignty.

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