Half of the globe apart, still good neighbors: Xi Jinping's affinity with Latin America

A SHARED VISION FOR COMMON DEVELOPMENT

Addressing the China-Latin American and Caribbean Countries Leaders' Meeting held in Brazil in 2014, Xi proposed that China and Latin America and the Caribbean build a community with a shared future.

China and Latin American countries are all developing ones, at similar stages of development, and shouldering the same development tasks. They can be partners in their respective pursuit of modernization.

During Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's China visit last year, Xi and his Brazilian counterpart witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation agreements, with many related to such new areas as poverty reduction, digital economy and telecommunications.

That served not only as an indication that the two countries will continue to create new growth drivers and jointly promote high-quality cooperation to further benefit their people, but as a reflection of the new trend in the win-win cooperation between China and Latin America.

Take new energy cooperation. Latin America, with abundant sunshine, is one of the world's most promising photovoltaic (PV) markets. Statistics of InfoLink show Latin America had 24.8-27.4 GW of PV demand in 2023, with Brazil being the largest market, followed by countries such as Chile and Mexico. On the other hand, China has been a global leader in the PV industries.

Chinese companies have been actively involved in the construction of PV power plants in Latin American countries, helping to transform the region's energy sector. In Brazil, the Marangatu Solar Complex, invested by SPIC Brazil, a subsidiary of China's State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), was officially inaugurated in June this year. It will generate enough electricity to power approximately 550,000 homes annually.