With frequent high-level visits and billions of US dollars worth economic and trade cooperation, China and Latin America ties have entered "best period in history", Chinese experts say.

As the third Latin American head of state to visit China in 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias spent the Christmas in China for a five-day state visit.

In May and June, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner visited China as well, accompanied by groups of business leaders.

In response, Chinese President Hu Jintao made a nearly two-week tour to Latin America and attended the 12th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in San Diego, during which he met with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo Manrique in November.

"China's new leadership expressed their interest in relations with Latin America by the exchange of visits between state leaders within one year for the first time in history," said Zhang Jiazhe, deputy director of the institute on developing countries of the Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
 
President Hu's Latin American tour reached the set goals of to expand consensus, enhance mutual trust, enlarge cooperation and realize common development, said Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.

Chinese and Latin American regional organizations also carried out kinds of political and economic cooperation this year, such as China-Latin America forum, China-South American Common Market dialogue and China-Andean Community consultation.

"Such frequent and close cooperation is rarely seen in China-Latin American relations," said Jiang Shixue, researcher with the Latin America Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Science.

Meanwhile, China and Latin America witnessed soaring growth in trade and economic cooperation.

According to China's statistics, China-Latin American trade increased by 600 percent from 1993 to 2003 and doubled from 2000 to 2003. Latin American countries enjoy trade surplus with China in general.

China-Latin American trade hit US$ 26.8 billion in 2003,including US$11.88 billion of Chinese exports and US$14.92 billion imports, Chinese customs figures show.

Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Panama are China's top five trade partners in Latin America.

In the first seven months of 2004, Sino-Latin American trade surged by 54.5 percent year on year to reach US$21.4 billion and LA countries' trade surplus was about US$2.8 billion.

China's main export commodities to Latin America include garments, fabric and textile products, shoes, machinery, television, coke and plastic products, while imports range from beans, copper, vegetable oil, steel, chips and paper pulp.

Chinese industrial and financial investment in Latin America rose to over US$4 billion and Latin American investment in China was US$36.6 billion so far.

China and Latin American countries also signed 39 items of agreements on trade, investment, aviation, space flight, tourism and education during Hu's visit to the region in November.

Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela announced the recognition of China's full market economy status, and China classified Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Peru as tourist destination which will allow Chinese tourists to travel to those countries.

"Latin American countries are sharing great benefits from China's soaring economy, and great potential still remains. It's the best period of history in China-Latin American ties," said Jiang Shixue.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2004)