In April of 2001, the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez initiated the first steps towards the construction of the Strategic Alliance for Shared Development between both nations, which has now established over 16 years of their relationship. This relationship could be defined as a set of instruments and mechanisms that have gradually materialized China-Venezuela cooperation, conceived under the three principles that they regulate: graduality, mutual benefit, and perfect planning.
TopIntroduction: The China-Venezuela Integral Strategic Partnership
In April of 2001, the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez initiated the first steps towards the construction of the Strategic Alliance for Shared Development between both nations, which has now established over 16 years of their relationship. This relationship could be defined as a set of instruments and mechanisms that have gradually materialized China-Venezuela cooperation, conceived under the three principles that they regulate as “Graduality”, “Mutual benefit” and “Perfect planning” (Giordani, 2013).
The first, and main, mechanism crafted was the Joint Commission of High-Level Venezuela-China. This was instantly agreed to bean historical framework for the relations between both nations, inaugurated during the first official visit of a Chinese president to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in April 2001 by President Jiang Zemin. After the constitution was agreed to, it was put into operation in May of the same year with the visit of President Hugo Chávez to the People's Republic of China and the signing of the first agreement between both nations, the Statutes of the High Level Mixed Commission (Barrios, 2014; Chávez, 2013).
The Joint High-Level Commission was constituted during fifteen meetings held between 2001 and 2017, toward further Strategic Association between both nations. This association was elevated in 2014 to the status of Integral Strategic Partnership, thus expanding the scope of Sino-Venezuelan interaction and cooperation. Through this mechanism, a set of instruments have emerged that have materialized the binational relationship: agreements, sub commissions, projects, joint financing funds and training exchanges.
In order to broaden the field of observation on the above, it is necessary to submit to the analysis the interaction and cooperation between both nations in the context of China - Latin America and the Caribbean relations, and the new phase of integral cooperation initiated in the year 2014, taking as reference the macro-political conception delineated by the People's Republic of China towards Latin America and the Caribbean. This was officially disclosed through two publications with a unique title, “Document on China's Policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean.” The first one was published in 2008, and the second one in November 2016.
According to the first publication: “the objective of establishing the China-LAC partnership of integral cooperation based on equality and reciprocal benefit and joint development” (Government of China, 2016, p. 2). Subsequently, the second publication highlighted that:
Since 2013, the Chinese leaders have proposed a series of important initiatives and measures with a view to strengthening relations and cooperation in various areas between China and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), assigning new objectives and a new driving force to Sino-Latin American and Caribbean ties. (Government of China, 2016, p. 1).
As part of this new impetus1, the China-Celac2 Forum was established, being envisioned as a platform for China-LAC cooperation, and the establishment of the China-LAC Integral Cooperation Association, as a promoter of Equality and Mutual Benefit towards development. All this is part of the diplomacy practiced by the current president of the Chinese government, Xi Jinping, which promotes a community of common destiny, based on knowledge, understanding and mutual recognition. He stated that: “China is willing to increase the points of convergence with the various countries to build international relations of a new kind, with win-win (Huaguang & Jianzhang, 2013, pp. 304, 305)3 cooperation as a nucleus and forge a community of destiny for humanity” (China, 2016, p. 1).