China Investments in Latin America – A Critical Perspective to the Mainstream Discourse of Imperialism in the Region

Abstract

Mainstream academics and pundits positions China as an imperial nation similar to the British Empire in the 18th century, which scavenged uncharted territories in search of natural resources for capital accumulation. As Latin America countries are recipients of a large portion of China's investments, it is used as an empirical evidence for that claim. This paper relies on Constructivist Theory for International Relations and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) in search of sufficient empirical evidences to position China as an important actor that possess shared ideas, identity, and interests with Global South countries, thus, despite the anarchical structure of the international system marked by states seeking self-preservation (in this sense, material capabilities are essential), there are conditions to the existence of the building blocks of a more equitable relationship among them. The methodological approach to conduct the investigation is grounded theory by searching the content analysis of the selected documents and using the computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) called ATLAS.ti. The argument is tested in the relations Brazil-China as a representative case for Latin America.