Centroamérica y Zhongguo: A Story of Converging and Conflicting Perspective in Chinese-Central American Relations

International partnerships take many forms, yet their success always hinges on the mutual satisfaction of each party’s objectives. Power differentials between participants often inhibit. This project understands these power dynamics in Chinese-Central American relations through the lens of discourse (both Chinese and Central American) around Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Central America. Government statements and media articles from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Costa Rica, and Nicaragua are coded for themes that reveal discursive messages about each party’s attitude toward these infrastructure projects. Findings reveal inconsistencies in the narratives that each country produces when they are compared across regions and internally. The PRC presents a mostly unified narrative across government and media sources, presenting the Chinese-Central American relationship as mutually-beneficial. The PRC characterizes Costa Rica and Nicaragua as fellow developing nations, while treating Central American people as obstacles to the progress of Chinese-funded projects. In contrast, the Central American narrative must be broken down at the government and media levels. Central American governments tend to echo sentiments from PRC government documents by using similar language. Central American media, however, draws attention to the failures of Chinese-funded projects and the doubts that Central American people have about them. By bringing both themes to light, the media accepts that working with the PRC can be a way for Central America to continue developing, but questions Central American governments’ management of these relationships and whether they serve the interest of Central American people.