Towards understanding China's partnership diplomacy in building Sino-Latin American and Caribbean community with a shared future

Purpose To properly understand China's partnership diplomacy towards Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) states within its ambition to promote a Global Community of a Shared Future for Mankind (GCSFM), a new conceptual approach is required. China's partnership diplomacy toward the LAC region remains weakly institutionalized and analytically opaque. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on dominant international relations theories, including relational approaches to global politics, this research is grounded in the hypothesis that a GCSFM as both a theoretical framework and a practical model is shaping Chinese partnership diplomacy in Latin America and the Caribbean by promoting cooperative initiatives, aligning development goals and managing asymmetries in economic and political power. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research examines the key documents related to GCSFM and the China-CELAC framework as a core mechanism of transforming their bilateral cooperation into multilateral cooperation. Findings The study finds that China does not seek to overturn the existing global order but rather to reshape it by integrating its “all-around development” paradigm with global demands for justice, inclusion and balanced development. This approach directly shapes China's engagement with the LAC region within the context of South-South cooperation. The GCSFM is operationalized through three key initiatives: global development initiative, global security initiative and global civilization initiative. Originality/value This paper provides a novel analytical framework for examining the precise scope and patterns of China's partnership diplomacy toward the LAC region.