At the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing, the Chinese foreign minister offered to accept more Mexican imports and encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest in Mexico.

Colombia formally agreed on Wednesday to join China's vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, as Beijing draws Latin America closer in a bid to counter the US.

The United States should look more generously at Latin America and South America, Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Monday, arguing that the world's largest economy has "much to gain" from greater industrial development across the continent.

The trade war has heightened China’s need to develop gateways to import the continent’s soybeans, corn and other foodstuffs that are the only viable alternative supply to U.S. exports.

China is now Latin America's second-largest trading partner, and the region has become the second-largest destination for Chinese investment abroad. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, more than 200 infrastructure projects have been implemented across Latin America and the Caribbean, creating more than 1 million jobs.