Beyond asymmetry: cooperation, conflict and globalisation in Mexico-China relations

Abstract

Academic commentary has long emphasised the asymmetry in Mexico-China relations. In particular, much attention has focussed since the early 1990s particularly from the Mexican side on the economic imbalance in trade and investment that has become and remains acute with the expansion of the economy of the People's Republic of China. This is though far from the only sense in which the relationship between the two countries is asymmetrical. There is also a severe imbalance in the relative importance of politics and economics as determinants of this relationship for both China and Mexico. The Mexican Government seems to be more concerned with its economic relationship with China. In contrast, the PRC Government seems more concerned with its political relationship with Mexico. Moreover, there is a further asymmetry in the respective significance that each appears to have to the other as a partner. Mexico plays a small role in China's outlook but China looms large in Mexico's worldview. Identification of a number of cross-cutting asymmetrical relationships suggests that a bilateral perspective may not be the most effective for understanding the interaction or potential interaction between Mexico and China. On the contrary, there is more logic to the elements of cooperation and conflict between Mexico and China when their relationship is viewed in the wider, multilateral context of globalisation.

Keywords:

• Mexico-China relations
• globalisation

Acknowledgments

Beatriz Carrillo Garcia is Lecturer in China Studies at the University of Sydney, China Studies Centre, and a member of the Department of Sociology and Policy. She was educated at the Tec de Monterrey (International Studies), Zhejiang and Shanxi Universities (Chinese), and UTS (Social Change in China). Her research focuses on social change in China, including rural to urban migration, social development and rural health. She is the author of Small Town North China: Rural Labour and Social Inclusion (2011).

Minglu Chen is Australian Research Council Postgraduate Research Fellow in the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney, and a member of the China Studies Centre. She was educated at Shanxi University (English), Nankai University (Linguistics), and UTS (Social and Political Change in China). Her research concentrates on social and political change in local China. She is the author of Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprise Development in China (2011).

David S. G. Goodman is Professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Sydney, where he is also Acting Director of the China Studies Centre. He was educated at the University of Manchester (Politics and Modern History), Peking University (Economics), and the London School of Oriental and African Studies (Chinese and Chinese Politics). His research has concentrated on China's provincial politics; the history of the Chinese Communist Party; and social and political change in China since 1900, especially at the local level. His most recent publication is The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives (2008).