Introduction

Commentary: Defusing the Myths about China’s Relations with Latin America

“…Quite a few researchers say yes. For instance, José Miguel Ahumada (2019: 49) believes that Latin America “is facing a growth regime that is based on an extractive and low-value-added export basket, a deep deindustrialization, and restricted policy space for states to implement pro-developmental policies.” Seungho Lee and Chong-Sup Kim (2020: 2) conclude that Latin America was undergoing a process of “premature deindustrialization” during the study period from 1990 to 2018 because “its manufacturing value-added as a percentage of GDP continuously declined from 19.1% to 13.4%.” They even point out that “the rate at which deindustrialization took place during the study period was much higher for the Latin American group than the other country groups.”…”