Beijing also aims at exploring a new model of South-South cooperation through exchanges with Latin America, which will focus more on the long-term development of both sides than short-term interests.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping assumed office in March 2013, he has made two visits to the Latin American and Caribbean region and met with his counterparts in all nations that have established diplomatic ties with China. He announced the establishment of the Forum of China and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in July 2014 to promote overall cooperation between the two sides. The first ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum concluded in Beijing on January 9, manifesting the eagerness of both sides to enhance substantial ties.

Beijing admires the huge developmental achievements Latin America has made over the past decade. The total GDP of Latin American countries increased from $1.86 trillion in 2002 to $5.6 trillion in 2012, a growth rate higher than the expectation of 2.2 percent for world economic growth. In 2015, the forecast for the region's economic growth rate was above 2.5 percent.

What's more important, data from the World Bank shows that more than 73 million people in Latin America "left the ranks of the poor" from 2003 to 2013 and the middle class in the region grew by 50 percent. While the world at large is seeing increasing social unfairness, inequality in Latin America declined for the first time in 40 years.

Now, strengthening the endogenous power of economic development, narrowing the enormous gap of wealth and better utilizing various resources in the international economic system constitute the common challenges facing all Latin American states.

Severely afflicted by a spectrum of economic crises during the 1980s and 1990s, Latin America registered an all-time high inflation rate, a heavy debt burden and a rampant fiscal deficit. The 1998-2002 Argentine Great Depression bogged Latin America down in a recession, but it encouraged countries in the region to reconsider and reform the neoliberal model that had been prominent for nearly 20 years.

Radical left-wing states represented by Venezuela began to completely go against the Washington Consensus while Brazil and other more moderate left-wing nations proposed further adjustment to their past reforms. Despite their different views, both of these groups see social justice as a significant goal.

Therefore, China should attach more importance to Latin America, not only owing to the actual benefits available from energy cooperation, trade and investment, but also because they are highly consistent in their efforts to seek an independent and effective development path.

China has become an engine to help drive economic growth in Latin America. According to estimates made by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, China will surpass the European Union in 2015 to become the second largest investor in this region following the US.

Apart from energy and resources, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, technological innovation and information technology are becoming key areas of cooperation between China and Latin America.

Beijing has extended a $20 billion loan for the region's infrastructure development and offered a preferential loan of $10 billion. China has conducted satellite cooperation with Brazil and Venezuela and in the future will enhance collaboration with Chile on astronomical research and with Argentina on nuclear power development.

Beijing also aims at exploring a new model of South-South cooperation through exchanges with Latin America, which will focus more on the long-term development of both sides than short-term interests.

However, Latin American nations will inevitably confront all sorts of challenges and hardships on the road ahead.

They have to undergo a tough transformation of their economic structures and development patterns as well as tackle negative outcomes brought about by rapid urbanization, global economic upheaval and rising food prices.

Moreover, those countries hold divergent opinions on the integration of the region, with several sub-regional organizations in subtle competition with each other. Plus, heavy military spending and potential armed conflicts are shadowing the prospects of the whole continent.

However, it is an irresistible trend that Latin America will rise despite all the challenges. At present, global geopolitical and geoeconomic landscapes are changing in a profound way and the bilateral overall cooperation driven by the China-CELAC Forum will inject a fresh dynamic into global development.

By Zhao Minghao, researcher fellow of the Charhar Institute

The article was originally published on Global Times