This book focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) records of Chinese oil investments in five Latin American countries: Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. These investments have been spearheaded by China’s national oil companies and their behavior has been scantly studied. The author uses comparative case studies to empirically examine existing theories of CSR. By using oil companies as the basic unit of analysis, this project adds a micro-level dimension to the field of China-Latin America relationship. It is ideal for audiences interested in the political economy of the oil industry, China, Latin America, and corporate social responsibility.
This dissertation evaluates and compares social and environmental records of Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) operating in Latin America from the early 21st century to 2015. Five countries representing the entirety of Chinese NOCs' physical presence are selected: Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. The project discovers that Chinese NOCs demonstrate the highest level of social responsibility in Peru and the lowest in Venezuela, with the other three countries constituting intermediate observations. The differences in social responsibility records are then causally traced to variances in the host countries' regulatory frameworks and civil society capacities. Chinese NOCs are found to be most willing to commit to social responsibility under an enabling regulatory environment in which the host government facilitates competitiveness and decentralization in its hydrocarbons industry while upholding inclusive policies regarding its civil society. Moreover, these NOCs are most likely to follow through on their CSR commitments when faced with a unified and collaborative civil society. These major findings yield important policy lessons for both the host government and the civil society in developing countries with abundance in energy resources.
This key publication takes an in-depth look at the hugely significant and evolving relationship between China and the nations of Latin America from a Chinese perspective. With their historical links and relationships, and more recently with China and Brazil's partnership within BRICS, Latin American nations have played an important part in China's transformation. Written by China's leading Latin America specialists and advisors, it offers a unique insight into China's relations with Latin American nations including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela.
"Through exhaustive field research and interviews, Ellis inventories, country by country, China's rapidly expanding commercial and diplomatic presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The irresistible allure of trade with the Chinese is a mixed blessing for the region: to transport raw materials and agricultural goods, a new East-West infrastructure is expanding Pacific coast ports from Mexico to Chile, once again leaving Latin America overly dependent on the export of low-value-added commodities. And although China's motives may be primarily commercial, the implications of its incursions are geopolitical: visiting Chinese leaders have declared Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela to be "strategic partners." As Ellis documents, China is investing heavily in Venezuelan crude oil, despite worries over Hugo Chávez's volatility and fears of embroiling itself in disputes between Caracas and Washington. China - together with illiberal petrostates - is a vital backstop for Chávez's authoritarian populist project and unrelenting drive to undercut U.S. interests and influence in the region. Inexplicably, Foggy Bottom has seemed largely oblivious to this concerted geopolitical challenge so close to home." -- www.foreignaffairs.com (Oct.15, 2010).
This study examines the establishment and evolution of China's strategic partnerships with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. It analyzes the key debates surrounding the partnerships and argues that China has disproportionately benefited from these arrangements.
Trade between Latin America and China has grown at an annual average rate of 25 percent since 2000, driven primarily by strong complementarity between the two economies. While commodities-for-manufacturing trade continues to be the dominant feature of the economic relationship, a number of LAC multinationals have undertaken major investments in China, staking a claim to its fast-growing market. These investments, while small, hold the potential to diversify and add value to the region's economic links with China. This report takes a closer look at Latin American firms that have successfully entered the Chinese market. The focus is on the how: how did firms first explore opportunities in China, how did they gain an initial foothold in the market, and how did they overcome the challenges of doing business in a geographically and culturally distant setting? To answer these questions, we analyzed a sample of 85 major Latin American multinationals with a direct presence in China. The results allow us to propose a basic typology of four categories of LAC firms in China, distinguished by their motivations, activities, and strategies in the country. This work was prepared for the China-LAC Business Summit 2012, organized jointly by the IDB, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the People's Bank of China, and the Government of Hangzhou municipality (Hangzhou, China, October 17-18, 2012).
This study examines how China has developed a diplomatic mechanism to expand its international influence through the establishment of strategic partnerships. These strategic partnerships have sparked a debate among analysts. On the one hand, some optimistic studies applaud the win-win objective of China’s foreign policy and portray China as a successful model for developing countries. On the other hand, more skeptical studies depict China as a rising imperial power that represents a competitive threat to Latin America. This book focuses on China’s strategic partnerships with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela within the oil sector. It stresses how Chinese strategic partnerships with each of these four countries have diverged across cases over time (1991–2015). The study finds that the strategic partnerships are asymmetrical in which China benefits more than four Latin American countries in a variety of aspects. I suggest Latin American countries to push for greater diversification of export agenda toward China, to develop new productive partnerships beyond traditional sectors and to increase the competitiveness of firms. Meanwhile, China’s diplomatic actions toward Latin America are more than likely to result in forms of change, particularly across my four country cases, and where strategic partnerships are concerned.
During Latin America’s China-led commodity boom, governments turned a blind eye to the inherent flaws in the region’s economic policy. Now that the commodity boom is coming to an end, those flaws cannot be ignored. High on the list of shortcomings is the fact that Latin American governments—and Chinese investors—largely fell short of mitigating the social and environmental impacts of commodity-led growth. The recent commodity boom exacerbated pressure on the region’s waterways and forests, accentuating threats to human health, biodiversity, global climate change and local livelihoods. China and Sustainable Development in Latin America documents the social and environmental impact of the China-led commodity boom in the region. It also highlights important areas of innovation, like Chile’s solar energy sector, in which governments, communities and investors worked together to harness the commodity boom for the benefit of the people and the planet.
With President Hu Jintao's November 2004 visit to Latin America, China signaled to the rest of the world its growing interest in the region. Many observers welcome this development, highlighting the benefits of increased trade and investment, as well as diplomatic cooperation, for both sides. But other analysts have raised concerns about the relationship's impact on Latin American competitiveness and its implications for U.S. influence in Washington's traditional backyard. In C hina's Expansion into the Western Hemisphere, experts from Latin America, China, and the United States, as well as Europe, analyze the history of this triangular relationship and the motivations of each of the major players. Several chapters focus on China's growing economic ties to the region, including Latin America's role in China's search for energy resources worldwide. Other essays highlight the geopolitical implications of Chinese hemispheric policy and set recent developments in the broader context of China's role in the developing world. Together, they provide an absorbing look at a particularly sensitive aspect of China's emergence as a world power. Contributors include Christopher Alden (London School of Economics), Robert Devlin (ECLAC), Francisco González (Johns Hopkins–SAIS), Monica Hirst (Torcuato Di Tella University), Josh Kurlantzick (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Xiang Lanxin (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva), Luisa Palacios (Barclays), Jiang Shixue (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Barbara Stallings (Brown University), Juan Tokatlián (San Andrés University), and Zheng Kai (Fudan University).
