Visit reflects belief that right way to future is cooperation

If you want to understand China's policies, markets and diplomacy, you need to understand the governing logic behind them. On the first day of his first state visit to China starting on Sunday, Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi went to the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. His visit began with basic questions: How did China get here, how does it think, and why does it act the way it does? That set the tone for a visit that is not just about buying and selling, but about how two countries — vastly different in size, geography and history — can work together to navigate a turbulent global order.

Orsi's seven-day visit can help deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Uruguay, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and strengthen coordination on international and regional issues of common concern. Clearly, this relationship is not confined to cargo ships and customs forms; it includes governance and multilateralism.

Uruguay is an economy with globally competitive agricultural and food exports. China is a massive and open market with sustained demand. For Uruguay, China is not just a customer; it is a market that provides scale, predictability and long-term planning space. For China, Uruguay is a partner with strong exports and a tradition of openness.

But what makes this visit more meaningful is the emphasis on stability and depth. When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Uruguayan Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin last May, he highlighted mutual respect between countries of different sizes, treating each other as equals. Lubetkin responded by underscoring that there is a consensus in Uruguay about developing relations with China.

In today's volatile world, a weeklong visit, a sizable delegation and meetings of leaders and business communities are instruments of cooperation and mutual trust — to investors, domestic audiences and external powers — that China-Uruguay practical cooperation is mutually beneficial and based on equality and market rules.

The relationship extends well beyond economics. Both China and Uruguay uphold multilateralism, free trade and international fairness. As members of the Global South, they are obliged to defend a rules-based system and resist unilateral pressure and zero-sum thinking.

China consistently supports Latin American and Caribbean countries' sovereignty and development. This matters because China-LAC relations are often seen through a geopolitical lens by some Western politicians who treat the region as a "backyard" of the United States. That outdated mindset is divorced from the trend of the times, contradicts the LAC countries' will and hinders their development. China-LAC cooperation targets no third party and should not be subjected to any external interference.

The China-LAC collaboration brings tangible benefits to local people — infrastructure projects, big and small, under the Belt and Road framework create local jobs and improve people's well-being. The collaboration extends to health, disaster relief, technology and other sectors.

As for Uruguay, apart from agricultural supply chains, it has vast potential in cooperation with China in the fields of clean energy as well as people-to-people exchanges. Uruguay can play a pivotal role as a regional connector — linking South America with the Asia-Pacific, including coordination within multilateral mechanisms on openness, digital economy cooperation and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

Though separated by oceans, Uruguay and China share passions — soccer most famously — and a growing curiosity about each other's societies and histories that bode well for tourism and cultural exchanges between the two sides.

Orsi's museum visit reflected his deep understanding that China's overseas engagements are actually rooted in its internal narrative of development, reform and continuity.

In today's volatile world, the real divide is not East versus West, or the North versus the South. It is between those who believe the future will be defined by cooperation and those who believe it will be shaped by coercion. Uruguay clearly believes in the first — and China is ready to walk that road with it.