Opinion | China’s ties with the Americas are a net positive for the whole region

The framework for China’s diplomacy can be summarised in four axioms: Major powers are the key; neighbouring countries are the priority; the developing world is the foundation; and multilateral diplomacy is the stage. To China, the developing world includes underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 1823, then US president James Monroe gave a speech before Congress. Part of this speech became the three key components of the Monroe Doctrine: first, the Americas were no longer open to new European colonies; second, European powers should not interfere in the political affairs of independent nations in the Western Hemisphere; and finally, the US would not involve itself in European affairs.

However, as many point out, the Monroe Doctrine soon became a tool for US imperialism and treating Latin America and the Caribbean as a backyard.

In 1904, then US president Theodore Roosevelt asserted that Washington had the right to intervene in Latin American nations to protect US and global financial interests. It led to numerous US military interventions in countries like the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua, often to protect American business interests. This kind of justification for US aggression was termed the Roosevelt Corollary, an apparent extension of the Monroe Doctrine.