Under the current Ecuadorian government of Daniel Noboa, major infrastructure, financial, and security cooperation with China has been restrained, but political expediency may change that.
In September 2024, Ecuadorian Economy Minister Juan Carlos Vega Malo traveled to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to discuss a range of commercial and financial issues. Significant differences between the Ecuadorian and Chinese positions prevented them from reaching concrete agreements, although both sides declared victory. Despite the problems in the Ecuador-PRC relationship, and fueled in part by Ecuador’s important upcoming February 2025 presidential election, the PRC and its companies are positioned to make substantial advances in the country. The evolving Ecuador-PRC relationship and the prospects for its growth were one of the most significant insights of the author during a December 2024 research trip to the country, and the focus of the present article.
Under the current Ecuadorian government of Daniel Noboa, China’s advancements in major infrastructure, financial, political and security cooperation have been restrained by multiple factors. These include significant problems and legal disputes over numerous projects contracted to the PRC during the prior administration of anti-U.S. leftist Rafael Correa, such as the Sinohydro-built Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric facility, as well as the country’s significant debt, arising largely out of those failed projects. President Noboa’s effort to balance Ecuador’s relationships with China, the U.S. and other actors has also limited China’s advances.
Keywords: Diplomacy, East Asia, China, Latin and South America, China-Ecuador relations, Ecuador
Background image is compilation of the flags of China (Unsplash.com https://unsplash.com/photos/red-national-flag-jL0tMFYOdBM) and Equador (Pexels.com, mislabled as Columbia, https://www.pexels.com/photo/colombian-flag-on-a-pole-19063936) overlaid on a blue sky (https://www.pexels.com/photo/corn-fields-under-white-clouds-with-blue-sky-during-daytime-158827)