The Lure of Chinese State Capitalism in Latin America: Influence, Investments and Imports

This work proposes and explains a political-economic concept, defined here as the neoliberal-dirigiste continuum, which offers an explanation of the manner in which Chinese capital and Chinese State Capitalism have been invested and received in different ways across the distinct geographies and countries in Latin America over the last three decades. While bilateral trade is one measure used to gauge the attractiveness of the Chinese state capitalist model in targeted Latin American economies, foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic aid/assistance by Chinese firms and Chinese government actors are other mechanisms through which Chinese economic engagement in the region can be assessed. This dissertation employs a mixed-methods approach to developing a Chinese economic engagement framework given particular and distinct Latin American foreign policies. The geographic variation of the success of recent Chinese economic activity (particularly foreign investment) in nine targeted Latin American economies (Colombia, Chile, Peru, México, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela) is examined in order to understand Chinese economic actors' engagement in the region compared with that of European and US economic actors