China has entered a new phase in its engagement with Latin America.

It is one still characterized by extensive resource-seeking and market-seeking activity, features of the relationship for more than three decades now. As China invests and trades in Latin American raw materials and builds markets across the region for everything from its toys and textiles to ultra-high-voltage transmission lines and cloud services, overall trade continues to rise.

At the same time, the relationship is rapidly evolving toward a more targeted, strategic approach. For all the recent attention given to China’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure projects, Latin America’s relative share of investments under the plan is falling for the third consecutive year. The region received a little more than 1% of Beijing’s global BRI construction spending and 0.4% of outbound investment in the first half of 2025. Growth in Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region is also slowing.

Whether those trends hold remains to be seen. But the days of Beijing showering the region with loans and large-scale infrastructure projects may be over, or at least diminished, replaced by more deliberate engagement and a focus on specific sectors of Chinese interest, especially at the higher end of the value chain.

The shift in focus among Chinese companies is being driven by a variety of factors and is evident across multiple continents. China’s economic policies are changing amid Beijing’s efforts to achieve moderate rates of economic growth, and so are perceptions of China in Latin America and other parts of the world. Meanwhile, sweeping shifts in U.S. economic and foreign policy under President Donald Trump are actively recalibrating relations between Washington and Beijing—with consequences for inter-American and China-Latin America ties.