About

This dashboard explores China’s investment in South America, based on the China Global Investment Tracker data set, created and maintained by Derek Scissors at the American Enterprise Institute, and freely available for download. We thank Derek Scissors and the AEI for publicly sharing this vital data set.

China, according to the Belt and Road Research Platform, is either the number one or number two trade partner for the majority of South American nations. In fact, in terms of economic hegemony, Bloomberg News (18 February 2022) has already conceded South America to China: “How China Beat Out the U.S. to Dominate South America.” Although history is obviously still being written, the data does support this claim. Our comments elsewhere.

Data Humanist for American Exile
16 June 2022
Github Repo: China_South_America.

Brief Note on Metals Sector

China is heavily involved in mining lithium in South America, but the otherwise outstanding China Global Investment Tracker does not breakdown the Metals sector investments into categories which include Lithium: the categories are Aluminum, Copper, Steel, or Unspecified.

Please freely assume that a good portion of the Unspecified is lithium and/or other green metals and/or rare earth elements.

Likewise, a deposit rich in one metal ore often also contains other elements of value. Mount Toromocho in Peru, one of China’s investments in the Metals sector, is rich not only in copper but also contains proven reserves of molybdenum and silver.

Finally, please know that all data representations – both visualizations and summary statistics – are necessarily simplifications of complex realities. Thank you.