Chinese scholar: Latin American countries’ modernization is shifting to “looking East”

Song Junying, director of the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said in Beijing on June 5 that as the five major projects for building a ChinaLatin America community with a shared future continue to advance, Latin American countries are gradually shifting from "looking West" to "looking East" and "looking to China" in their exploration of modernization, and are beginning to draw more on the experience of Chinese modernization. That day, the Public Diplomacy Association of China held a themed briefing for the "Linjia 7 Salon" on "One Year of the Five Major Projects for Building a ChinaLatin America Community with a Shared Future: Practice and Prospects." Participants exchanged views on the topic. Attendees noted that China and Latin America are both important members of the Global South and share many commonalities in development paths, modernization goals, and realworld challenges. Song Junying believes that Chinese modernization offers a new reference for Global South countries and also breaks the entrenched notion that "modernization equals Westernization." He suggested that China and Latin America could strengthen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as new industrialization, scientific and technological innovation, green transition, and governance, and promote the formation of a more independent system of modernization knowledge and narrative through joint think tank research.