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Bolivia Risks Debt Default Without New Funding, Says President

Bolivia, battling an economic crisis that has plunged it into social unrest, risks defaulting on its loan payments if it does not obtain new foreign financing, President Luis Arce told AFP on Wednesday. "We are trying not to default. We have ...

Bolivia Inaugurates Steel Plant Built With Chinese Loan

Short on foreign currency, Bolivia inaugurated a steel plant Monday that it hopes will reduce its reliance on metal imports, thanks to a loan from China. The Mutun megaproject in Puerto Suarez, near Bolivia's border with Brazil, was built at a ...

China Pledges Trustworthy Ties with Latin America as Trump Wields Tough Demands

China is boldly staking its claim as a trustworthy and reliable friend to Latin America. “China will always be Latin America's 'trustworthy' friend and partner,” declared Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to his Bolivian counterpart, signaling Beijing’s intent to deepen ...

Tracking Chinese Mineral Engagement Along the Belt and Road

China’s centrality in the global critical minerals sector is frequently bemoaned in Western capitals, but what’s less understood is how China got there. A new report by AidData, a research center at the College of William and Mary, came out this week and tracks mineral-related deals ...

Bolivia Announces $1 Billion Deal With CATL Unit to Build Lithium Plants

Bolivia said Tuesday it had signed a $1 billion deal with China's CBC, a subsidiary of the world's largest lithium battery producer CATL, to build two lithium carbonate production plants in the country's southwest. Bolivia's state-owned Bolivia Lithium Deposits (YLB) said ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China-Led Study Proposes Global Energy Network

A globally connected network of solar and wind energy could provide three times the global energy demand by 2050 at a lower cost than independent national power systems. This is the finding of a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the United States and Denmark.
The study focused on how areas with high solar and wind capacity (such as deserts) can be linked ...

Where’s the Beef? How Commodity Exports and Infrastructure Contracts are Driving the New China-Latin America and the Caribbean Economic Relationship

By Rebecca Ray In recent years, China’s engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) may be shifting in form and deepening rather than diminishing. This is one of the key findings of the

Taiwan Slams Bolivia for Quake Solidarity With China

Taiwan's foreign minister lashed out at Bolivia on Saturday for expressing solidarity with China following an earthquake that struck the island Beijing views as its own. At least ten people were killed and more than 1,100 injured by the magnitude 7.2 ...

Lithium Rush: The Risks and Rewards of a China-Led Commodity Boom for Latin America and the Caribbean’s Transition Materials

By Zara C. Albright At last week’s Belt and Road Forum, China announced the creation of the Green Investment and Finance Partnership (GIFP), part of the $100 billion in new financing for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at ...

Undercutting the Amazon? Deregulation in the Wake of South America’s Chinese Investment Boom

By Rebecca Ray As Brazilians head to the polls at the end of this month for a presidential runoff between current President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, one of the many issues on the table is management of the Amazon rainforest. ...

China is Using its Cobalt Playbook to Corner Lithium Supplies

Chinese mining companies are moving quickly to snap up some of the world's largest lithium mines, mostly located in South America's so-called "Lithium Triangle" that stretches across Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. Since 2018, Chinese companies have invested an estimated $16 billion ...

Inflation, Supply Chain Woes Hit Chinese Supermarkets in Argentina

Supply chain disruptions and inflation are driving Chinese shopkeepers out of Argentina’s major cities to the countryside and even to neighboring countries. An Asian business association said rising rents and staff costs mean owners are increasingly considering moving to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, or Paraguay. ...

Data Analysis for Transparency and Accountability in China’s Overseas Economic Activity

The Global China Initiative (GCI) at the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center manages five open-source databases tracking Chinese overseas development finance and investments. Through these databases, GCI aims to provide transparent data to aid the public, including policymakers, journalists, academic researchers, civil society, and others, ...