The first China-CELAC Ministerial Forum started on Jan. 8^th, 2015, which is reckoned to be another significant institutional innovation of China’s dialogue with other developing countries since the founding of China-Africa Forum in 2006. The cooperation between China and Latin America is gaining momentum but still shackled by certain misunderstandings between the two sides. The author, who just finished a trip to several Latin American countries, came to a conclusion of the sources of these misunderstandings, which would help us straighten out the comprehensive relationship between China and the rest of the developing world.

 “China is a new noble to Latin America” and “Latin America is a new continent to China” – These two sentences are vivid demonstrations of the images of China and Latin America in each other’s eyes. I first got this impression at the 3^rd High-level Academic Forum of China and Latin America, and it was proved and deepened after a trip to Chile and Brazil.

At the forum, Professor Gustavo Santillán concluded that Latin Americans are prejudiced towards China about five things, i.e. 1) an imperialist tendency; 2) China’s “invasion” of Latin America; 3) an “authoritarian” system; 4) restoration of Capitalism or the neo-liberalist exploration; 5) Not familiar with the culture, which led to an cognitional indifference.

I was not expecting to hear about these frustrating misconceptions on my first trip to Latin America. Latin Americans has been using a particular set of words to describe China/Chinese, and if you read between the lines, you may gradually came to realize the logic of them. They say phrases like: 1）un pais en la luna（China is remote and mysterious, like a country in the moon;（2）Estoy en china, no se nada（I am in China, and I know nothing, meaning China is big and a myth；（3）trabajar como chinos（Work like a Chinese；（4）Paciencia como chinos（Be patient like a Chinese；（5）Co-Chinos（Be dirty as a Chinese；（6）Cuentos Chinos（Meaning China produces a lot of counterfeits）.

Aside from being a silk- and spice-selling oriental state, “China” is commonly used as a negative word. For example, in Cuba, people say “tener chino atras” to warn people of bad luck; while in Mexico, “engaña como chinos” is to describe an easy mark of swindlers. Words and expressions are a reflection of the misunderstandings in real life.

I have to admit that, in regard of ideology, economic structure, and current level of development, there are large differences between China and Latin American countries, also among themselves. However, the majority of Latin American countries are developing countries with a colonial history. To some extent, they understand China in a similar way. There are generally ten sources of misunderstandings of Latin Americans towards China:

1) Colonial History- based sentiments: Some Latinos tend to transfer their feelings for European countries and the US directly to China. Once colonies of European countries, Latin America is now more of a “backyard” of the US. China is in some ways following the track of Europeans and Americans, i.e. importing raw materials from and selling industrial products to Latin America, which led to a widespread concern of China to become the next colonist. The use of “Imperialism Chino” in some media is clearly an outlet of this kind of sentiment.

2) Wrongful estimations: Economic and trade contact between China and Latin America has been growing rapidly in recent years. While some welcomed Chinese investment and see China as a new noble, some has been rejecting it out of a fear for China’s control over Latin American economy. China’s national strength, hence, is either exaggerated or debased.

3) Fear: Trade of bulk commodities, mainly export of fuels and minerals to China,  has been a major pull of economic growth of several Latino countries. Some Latinos are afraid of a recurring nightmare of de-industrialization and economic dependency. Dani Rodrik, a Harvard professor, suggests that China’s footprint on Latin America is contributing to a “premature de-industrialization”, thus interdicted the standard path of economic development followed by almost every country since the industrial revolution.

4) Various Expectations: Countries have distinct expectations for China, potentially a third choice other than Europe and the US. Some Latin American countries hope to attract more attention of Europe and the US by enhancing relations with China; From other’s standpoint, an enhanced relation with China may also help diminish economic dependency on the US, transfer cutting-edge satellite and nuclear technologies, bring in new incentives for growth in trade and investment, provide an alternative pattern of development, improve international status through south-south strategic cooperation, or even fight against political influence of the US through forming political and ideological alliances, etc. Fernando Reyes Matta suggests that China’s help with Latin satellite programs can be far more productive in reducing misunderstandings than holding academic conferences”).

5) Uniqueness of Latin America: Latin America is still developing, but its culture comes directly from the west. This mixture of “South” and “West” has left China criticized by both leftists and rightists: On the one hand, leftism, with various adapted versions in different countries, is rather popular in Latin America. However, in general, the Latin version of Marxism is not so tolerant to the one with Chinese characteristics; Rightists or neo-liberalists, on the other hand, can hardly appreciate the political system and development pattern of China. China-Latin American cooperation is south-south cooperation to China, while north-south cooperation in the eyes of some of its Latin American counterparts.

6) Populism: The elites’ decisive influence on the overall perception of China is offset by a populist tendency in Latin American democracies. Elites have few channels to communicate to the mass about the real China. Populism also made it hard for Latinos to understand China’s “strong government” and “weak society”.

7) Media: Direct communication between Chinese and Latinos is so limited that information mainly got through with European or American media. The behavior of Chinese enterprises shall not be bad thus annoy the locals, meanwhile it shall not be too good thus pose a challenge to western companies and incur criticism from western media. Trapped in this dilemma, Chinese enterprises still have other serious difficulties. Lacking knowledge of local policies, laws and regulations on labor, environment, tax, etc, Chinese companies often feel powerless in administrative procedures and lawsuits, especially when they have to deal with local unions, aboriginal communities and NGOs. Some media are found exaggerating the facts and exacerbated the bad impression of Latinos towards Chinese.

8) Concerns about International Status: For example, it is reported that China’s repeated emphasis that China is not to overthrow the current international order has upset some Latin American countries. China gets a lot of complaint from Brazil and alike because China hardly ever joined them in poking the US to promote the status of emerging countries.

9) Religion: It is not always about economy. Perception can also be deeply influenced by social and cultural factors. Most Latinos are Catholic. It is understandable that many of them are unfamiliar with a secular society like China: they may contradict atheism proposed by the Communist Party, or dislike China’s family planning measures and abortions entailed.

10) Race: Once a heated topic in Europe, the “Yellow Peril” theory also went widespread in some parts of Latin America. For example, 10,000 Chinese who participated in the Taiping Rebellion was sold and shipped to Peru, and later joined the Chilean Liberator in launching a revolt – Historically, this explains why Chileans tend to have better impression of Chinese than Peruvians. Further, the distribution of Chinese immigrants also affects the impression they leave the locals.

 China and Latin America are geographically far apart, with great differences in political systems, social structures, cultural traditions, language and customs. It is so hard for tourists to get visas that Chinese lack personal experience with Latinos. Incomprehension served as a breeding bed for misunderstandings. It is an arduous and long-time task for China to build a national image not as an imaginary foreign country but a real friend, and forge a more precise and comprehensive understanding of itself among the Latinos. Whether China can manage to do so should be considered a crucial parameter of the performance of public diplomacy.

It must be noted that the amity of Latin American governments is highly volatile and dependent on elections and political instability in general. Many Latin American countries suffer from an ambivalence since China brings both huge income and economic dependency.

It seems that Latinos are much confused about whether China is an opportunity or a threat: they have great expectations, but also great anxiety about China. Behind the paradoxical attitude towards China lies a paradoxical recognition of itself, which was then a result of the “Latin America Paradox”: Latin America is a cluster of emerging economies with huge gaps of wealth. It can reflect what European countries did in the history, and be an epitome of the south today. This paradox, and other concepts like the “middle-income trap” and “the Latin American disease”, are all closely linked to three dualisms/problems yet to solve: First of all, Latin America is economically Southern but politically/culturally European. Latin American countries are of the South, while soaked in European culture. Political developments are always found ahead of economic growth; Prices are high but incomes are largely varied; The relationship among the society, the state and the market remains to be adjusted. Secondly, governance can hardly cope with globalization. For example, though Latin America’s urbanization rate is among the highest in the world, even higher than that of Europe, cities are filled with slums, reflecting the un-modernized management and governance of the local authorities. Thirdly, regional integration in Latin America is still out of reach as Latinos are heading towards at least three different directions: Anti-American leftists in countries like Cuba and Venezuela want to establish an ideological alliance; regional powers like Brazil and Argentina want a limited and somewhat protectionist common market; while members of the Pacific Alliance like Mexico, Chile and Peru are promoting the economic integration among Asia-Pacific countries. The CELAC cannot be a greater success than the EU unless it can forge a consensus among its members.

Inclusive development of the bilateral (China-Latin America) relations is key to eliminate misunderstandings, and it then relies on inclusive development of the two sides respectively. The two peoples are expecting China and Latin American countries’ mutual learning and joint development for sure. China is going global, which requires a better knowledge not just about Latin America, but about the developing world at large. Through studying Latin America, we can also learn more lessons about the transformation of emerging economies, and get a clearer idea about China and the world. It is a task for every Chinese instead of just scholars. It is necessary, therefore, to look at Latin America as a whole, and further discuss China’s cooperation with European countries to develop CELAC markets and conduct academic studies on them. We can see the world through Latin America, and figure out who we are through seeing the world.