by Wang Yi
Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China

The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum will be held on May 13 in Beijing. It will be an important meeting on the 10th anniversary of the official launch of the China-CELAC Forum. As the hosting country, China warmly welcomes friends from CELAC member states and organizations of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. We look forward to working with all sides to plan together for development and revitalization, and build together a China-LAC community with a shared future.

I

In July 2014, President Xi Jinping proposed the major initiative of building a China-LAC community with a shared future at the leaders’ meeting between China and LAC countries in Brasilia. The leaders also agreed at the meeting to establish the China-CELAC Forum, affirming their political consensus to promote the overall cooperation between the two sides. In January 2015, the successful conclusion of the First Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing marked the inauguration of a cooperation platform for China and all the 33 independent LAC countries, turning a vision into reality.

Over the past 10 years, under the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, China and LAC countries have worked toward the goal of win-win cooperation in line with the principle of acting as equal partners. We have pursued cooperation in a flexible and pragmatic way and in an open and inclusive spirit. Our joint efforts have spurred the dynamic growth of the China-CELAC Forum, and synergized the overall cooperation with bilateral cooperation, allowing China-LAC relations to progress with accelerated speed.

China-LAC relations feature a stronger foundation for mutual trust. The two sides firmly accommodate each other’s core interests and major concerns, and firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity. Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras established or resumed diplomatic relations with China. The one-China principle has increasingly gained the consensus of regional countries. To date, China has established different types of partnerships with 16 countries in the region, including the China-Cuba community with a shared future and the China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet. These all added to the substance of China-LAC relations. 

China-LAC relations feature more fruitful cooperation. The Global Development Initiative has gained wide support of regional countries, and more than 20 countries have synergized development strategies with China under the Belt and Road cooperation framework. The trade volume between China and LAC countries doubled in the past decade, reaching a historic milestone of US$518.4 billion in 2024. China stays the second largest trading partner country of the region for years in a row. More than 200 infrastructure projects and multiple industrial capacity cooperation projects built by China have generated more than one million jobs for the local people. China has launched livelihood assistance projects in all countries with which it has diplomatic ties, and Chinese enterprises have actively fulfilled their social responsibilities. These efforts have given a significant boost to local industrialization and economic and social development, and set a fine example of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation between China and LAC countries. 

China-LAC relations feature deeper mutual learning between civilizations. LAC countries widely recognize the Global Civilization Initiative, and the two sides have had seven rounds of successful Dialogue Between Civilizations. China has so far provided LAC countries with 17,000 government scholarships and around 13,000 training opportunities in China, signed 26 cooperation documents on education with 19 regional countries, and opened 68 Confucius Institutes or Classrooms in 26 regional countries. Many regional countries have designated the Spring Festival as their public holiday. China has rolled out 240-hour visa-free transit policy for multiple LAC countries. These show that people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides have deepened and our peoples’ mutual understanding of and goodwill for each other have been enhanced.

China-LAC relations feature closer coordination in multilateral fora. The two sides firmly uphold the U.N.-centered international system, stay committed to multilateralism underpinned by coordination and cooperation, stand firmly against interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and oppose hegemonism and power politics. China and LAC countries have conducted close communication at the U.N., the G20, APEC and BRICS to advance the reform of the global governance system and safeguard the common interests of developing countries. China and Brazil jointly issued the six-point consensus on political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and launched the group of “friends for peace” at the U.N., gaining extensive support of the international community.

China-LAC relations feature a more multidimensional framework of cooperation. The China-CELAC Forum, with mechanisms of the ministerial meeting, foreign ministers’ dialogue between China and the CELAC Quartet, and meeting of national coordinators, has hosted more than a hundred events, including three ministerial meetings and 31 subforum sessions. It has served as the main channel for the overall cooperation between China and LAC countries. China’s National People’s Congress is a permanent observer of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). China is an observer country of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO). China also maintains close contact with the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) and subregional organizations including the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Pacific Alliance (AP), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). All these have provided extensive support and multiple drivers for the development of China-LAC relations.

II

The Chinese people often say, “Reviewing the past helps understand the future.” In LAC countries, there is also a famous saying, “History is a prophet with the gaze turned back.” To evaluate the decade-long development of the China-CELAC Forum and the China-LAC relations with a broader vision and a longer-term perspective helps us to better grasp the general trend, strengthen confidence, and work toward the future together. From the significant progress of China-LAC relations over the past decade, we have learned the following:

China-LAC cooperation is a natural choice in line with the prevailing trend of the world. The collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive hallmark of the great transformation in the world. China and LAC countries are important members of the Global South. Increased cooperation between the two sides sends a strong message of the Global South seeking strength through unity and aligns with the dominant trend toward a multipolar world. This not only injects new substance into China-LAC relations but also makes new contributions to a more fair and equitable international order.

China-LAC cooperation is a natural choice to realize modernization in the world. China and LAC countries, with one-fifth of the world’s total land mass, a quarter of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economic output, are the country and region with the greatest growth potential and development vitality. When China and LAC countries come together and collaborate, we can create a supersized trans-Pacific market covering some two billion people. This will provide sustained momentum for our respective development and revitalization as well as confidence and strength to face any blackmail or suppression. 

China-LAC cooperation is a natural choice to safeguard fairness and justice for humanity. China advocates extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefit, which is the antithesis of coercion and bullying. China’s investment in the LAC region has no political strings; such investment meets the need of the LAC side and helps empower their development. By contrast, what a certain major power does in the LAC region only disempowers the region. Who is a trustworthy friend for LAC countries? And who is their reliable long-term partner? The answer is crystal clear.

China-LAC cooperation is a natural choice to pursue a shared future. China and LAC countries have supported each other in our respective struggle against imperialism and colonialism and in our fight for national liberation. We have also supported each other in exploring development paths befitting our respective national conditions. Deeper cooperation between us has created growth drivers for both sides. During the COVID-19 pandemic, China and LAC countries went all-out supporting each other. History and reality have consistently demonstrated that building a China-LAC community with a shared future is a common endeavor of the willing that is underpinned by concrete actions.

III

Currently, the world is undergoing changes and turbulence. Peace and development faces challenges. The foundational idea underpinning international cooperation is being eroded. Uncertainties and destabilizing factors in the international environment are increasing. Most notably, a certain major country, holding a “me-first” world view, is trying to snatch the fruits of development from the Global South, including China and LAC countries, and to hold back or even halt our modernization process. Pursuing modernization is a legitimate right of people in all countries, not the privilege of a few. Turning back the wheel of history will find no public support; bullying and power politics will lead to nowhere. In the face of risks and challenges, China and LAC countries should stand on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice, safeguard our respective development outcomes, continue to strive on side by side toward modernization, and build a China-LAC community with a shared future.

We must defend independence. Without independence, development cannot be achieved and its outcomes cannot be sustained. LAC countries propose to achieve not only political and sovereign independence but also true economic and cultural independence. China fully agrees and stands ready to work with the LAC side to continue supporting each other firmly in exploring development paths suited to our respective national conditions, oppose all forms of interference in internal affairs and pursue greater democracy in international relations.

We must safeguard peace and security. China is the only major country that has written the commitment to peaceful development into its Constitution. It has been reaffirmed at multiple CELAC Summits that Latin America and the Caribbean is a Zone of Peace. As forces for international peace, China and LAC countries should practice the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and support peaceful settlement of disputes. We must oppose building one’s own security on the insecurity of others, oppose the threat or use of force and oppose overstretching the concept of security.

We must realize development and revitalization. Modernization is the common aspiration and pursuit of the peoples of China and LAC countries. The two sides need to further synergize development strategies, strengthen top-level design, and provide each other with drivers of development. We need to weave a tighter network of connectivity and further facilitate trade and investment so as to foster a large China-LAC market. We need to deepen industrial capacity cooperation, jointly safeguard the stability of industrial and supply chains, strengthen cooperation in high-tech and emerging areas as well as talent cultivation to achieve leapfrog development together. China will also implement more “small and beautiful” livelihood projects to enhance people’s sense of gain.

We must uphold multilateralism. Multilateralism is the cornerstone of the post-war international order. China and LAC countries need to practice true multilateralism, firmly safeguard the international system with the U.N. at its core and the international order underpinned by international law, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries. We need to jointly reject unilateralism and uphold the WTO-centered multilateral trading system. We need to jointly advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and inject more stability and positivity into global development. 

We must deepen solidarity and cooperation. CELAC is committed to the vision of the great unity of people in the LAC region. The CELAC Summit in Havana adopted a Special Declaration on the Establishment of the China-CELAC Forum. The Forum embodies the friendship between the two sides. We should work for its better development so that it can provide greater driving force for China-LAC relations and integration in the LAC region.

As a proverb in the LAC countries says, “United, we are invincible.” In China, we also have an old saying, “All must row to move a big boat.” The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum is an opportunity to solidify our commitment to development, dedication to cooperation and bond of friendship, and to make new progress in building a China-LAC community with a shared future.