Chinese Advances and Setbacks in Colombia

Abstract

In June 2017, the leadership of the Pacific Alliance will pass from Chile to Colombia, ushering in a year in which the later has the opportunity to reshape and inject new dynamism into, the block’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the rest of Asia.

As in other parts of Latin America, Colombia’s relationship with the PRC in recent years has advanced in important, but uneven ways, largely beyond the attention of policymakers and scholars in the United States.

Among Latin American countries, Colombia’s engagement with the PRC is particularly complex: Colombia enjoys a close security relationship with the United States, which could potentially impact and be impacted by Colombia’s commercial and military cooperation with China. On the other hand, despite important U.S.-Colombia economic ties, Colombia is not economically bound to the United States to the same extent as are geographically closer states such as Mexico and the countries of Central America.

Beyond its relationship with the United States, Colombia’s economy includes substantial urban markets such as Bogota, Medellin Cali, Cartagena, and Barranquilla, as well as important primary product industries including petroleum, making the country attractive to Chinese investors. On the other hand, the country also has a well-developed, yet insular, manufacturing sector which often views Chinese companies as a threat, and which (although fragmented), is politically well-connected through a web of familial networks, facilitating resistance to attempts by Chinese companies to enter that market.