The Struggle to Acquire Companies and Win Project Work in Latin America

Abstract

As Chinese companies and personnel seek to enter Latin America and the Caribbean, the first set of challenges that they face concerns their attempts to acquire assets, and win and set up projects. The difficulties that the Chinese encounter in doing so arises from all directions: obstacles to mergers and acquisitions, objections by extraregional actors to Chinese investments and projects, resistance from regional governments at both the national and local level, attempts by commercial competitors and other parts of the private sector to stop them, and objections from the political opposition and other actors who were not included in the government-to-government deal and any corresponding financial bonanza.