Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for Latin American nations to deepen their ties to China and “stand united” at a Beijing-hosted China-CELAC meeting, stressing that “there were no winners in tariff and trade wars.”
CELAC is a 33-country regional bloc founded in Caracas in 2011. Venezuela’s late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, who strongly pushed for the bloc’s creation, promoted it as a “U.S.-free” regional bloc. CELAC, which does not include the United States and Canada, has no executive or resolution capacity and the the results of its summits are simply “declarations.”
China is presently hosting the fourth Ministerial CELAC-China meeting. Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro, who occupies CELAC’s rotating chairmanship, travelled to Beijing to represent the bloc at the event alongside far-left presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Gabriel Boric of Chile.
Xi delivered a speech at the opening of the event in which he claimed that China is ready to “join hands” with Latin American and Caribbean nations and, in an apparent allusion to the United States, claimed that “there are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars.”
“Bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation. China and LAC [Latin American and Caribbean] countries are important members of the Global South. Independence and autonomy are our glorious tradition,” Xi said.
The Chinese dictator announced a 66-billion-yuan ($9.16 billion) “credit line” to launch “five programs that advance our shared development and revitalization, and contribute to a China-LAC community with a shared future.”
The five Chinese-funded programs, Xi claimed, include a “solidarity program” in which China will allegedly work with CELAC nations to “support each other on issues bearing on our respective core interests and major concerns.” They also include a “development program” that will see China work with the bloc to implement Xi’s “Global Development Initiative” to uphold the “multilateral trading system, ensure stable, unimpeded global industrial and supply chains, and promote an international environment of openness and cooperation.”
Other Chinese-funded programs announced by Xi include a “civilization program” to champion “development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom;” a “peace program;” and a “people-to-people” program that will allegedly see China provide Chinese-funded training projects.
Additionally, Xi announced the launch of a Chinese film and TV program exhibition and visa exemption program for CELAC nations, starting first with five unspecified countries.
Representing CELAC as its current chairman, Petro called for a “rethinking of the course of humanity” in his speech, which featured his characteristic “decarbonization” and “climate change” rants. Petro also availed himself of the opportunity to criticize the United States over the deportation of illegal migrants from its territory.
“Decarbonization does not advance because the climate crisis is denied and because of ideologies that darken the heart, soul and brain. It does not advance because the climate crisis is denied,” Petro said. “It does not advance because we do not look at the importance of life and we look more at the importance of the dollar and greed.”
“The dialogue has been interrupted by Latin American migrants who arrive in chains as if we North Americans and South Americans had not fought against slavery centuries ago,” he continued.
Petro, who recently confirmed his intention to have Colombia join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), asserted that “a dialogue between civilizations cannot be imposed; it is a model for relations between Celac and China.”
“From the Chinese perspective of the Silk Road, of the Belt, it can be crossed horizontally, joining two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic,” Petro said. “And by joining them, the European and African world with the Asian, Eastern world, China and other peoples. Of course we can.”
Petro issued calls for talks on the “decarbonization” of North America for the “benefit of mankind,” and claimed that “this has been raised several times, but no progress is being made.” Coal is one of Colombia’s top exports.
“Energy, through electric cables between Colombia and Panama, is not progressing,” he complained, “and the great southern network … could completely decarbonize the energy matrix of the United States for the total benefit of humanity and the life of the planet, is not progressing.”
“And it is not progressing because ideologies are increasingly scarring the heart, the soul and the brain. It is not progressing because the climate crisis is being denied,” he continued.
Petro shared a photo of Xi, Petro, Lula, and Boric posted by China’s ambassador to Colombia Zhu Jingyang on social media. The Colombian president described the group as seeking to “revive multilateralism, for Europe to gain independence, for Slavic peoples to speak directly to each other, for Gaza to be filled with food rather than bombs, for humanity’s main objective today to be not war but decarbonizing the economy for life.”
Esta foto busca que se reanime el multilateralismo, que Europa cobre independencia, que los pueblos eslavos hablen directamente entre sí, que sobre Gaza no caigan bombas sino comida, que el principal objetivo de la humanidad hoy, no es la guerra sino descarbonizar la economía… https://t.co/430bjlcavV
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 13, 2025
“That America goes from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and that its main objective today is not to expel migrants, but to make the clean energy potential of the South become a reality to achieve a 100-percent clean matrix in North America, a decisive fact to stop global warming and make life flourish,” Petro said.
Brazil’s radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is slated to meet with Xi on Tuesday, claimed to Chinese outlets that he aims to work with China to “strengthen the voice of the Global South in defending multilateralism and free trade.” Lula, who described China as a “political” and “economic” partner, further claimed that Brazil does not want the supremacy of one country and currency over others and instead wants for everyone to be able to sell and buy equitably.
“I believe that the Global South is the political novelty of the 21st century. I am very proud of us for getting to where we are. And it is possible to grow even more, because there are many people who want to join the Global South,” Lula said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
