A Silent Monopoly? China’s Growing Influence on Latin America’s Energy Transition

Abstract This article investigates the expanding and evolving influence of China on the process of Latin America’s energy transition. From the early phase, when Chinese policy banks provided sovereign loans to finance large-scale fossil fuel and hydroelectric projects, to the subsequent decade marked by mergers and acquisitions in the clean energy sector by state-owned enterprises, and most recently, to the wave of greenfield investments in renewable energy and strategic resources led by competitive private firms. This trajectory reflects not only China’s domestic decarbonization priorities but also a broader geopolitical strategy aimed at securing access to strategic resources such as lithium, while vertically integrating value chains from extraction to clean technology manufacturing. Beyond bilateral investments, China has also sought to institutionalize its presence through multilateral platforms, advancing green development narratives and aligning regional governance frameworks with its strategic interests. The article argues that beneath the discourse of sustainable cooperation, a silent monopoly is gradually consolidating, characterized by functional dominance across four interrelated dimensions: resources, technology, governance, and finance. Conceptualized as a form of neo-dependency, this multidimensional configuration risks constraining the strategic autonomy of Latin American states and limiting their capacity to articulate independent models of sustainable development.