This master thesis, composed by a graduate majoring in international relations in Aal- borg University, is an academic paper focusing on the triangle relationship of the US, China and Latin America, namely The U.S. Factors in the development of Sino-Latin American Relations. With the the relationship between China and Latin American countries improving, the US concerns about the deepening cooperation in politics, trade and military between China and its neighbor Latin America, and responds ac- tively to this developing relationship, which makes this topic interesting to explore.
This thesis is divided into nine chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of this thesis and the second the background. The third part is about theory and methodology, in which triangle theory in realism and geopolitical theory are used as the guiding theories of this thesis. In triangle theory, the relationship between any two will be af- fected by each player's relationship to the third, which is appropriate to analyze the interaction among China, Latin America the US. Geopolitical theory studies geo- graphical variables that influence international politics, for example geographical po- sitions and natural resources. Both qualitative data and quantitative data are applied in the thesis. Qualitative data like China‘s government policy paper, the US experts comments and public speeches are used to define the possible attitude of China, the US and Latin America towards each other. Quantitative date like China and US in- vestment in Latin America are used to illustrate facts. The next three chapters intro- duce the historical evolution of Sino-Latin American Relations, the US response to the development of Sino-Latin American Relations, and the influences of the US fac- tors on Sino-Latin American relations. This thesis also presents two cases study of Brazil and Mexico respectively in terms of their geographic position, natural re- sources and different degree of integration with the US, so as to give specific exam- ples of the US influences on Latin American countries‘ relations with China. The last two parts are China‘s response to the US factors in its relations with Latin America and the conclusion.