CHINA AND LATIN AMERICA UNDER THE SAME HEAVEN? TIANXIA AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The rise of China and the reconfiguration of the world order has generated a profound debate on the role that China should have in the world. At the same time, this rise reflects a growing relationship between China and Latin America. In this regard, the most recent phase in this increasing process has been the proposal that the Latin American region could be incorporated into the initiative of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. This article analyzes the relationship of China with Latin America from the theoretical proposal of the Tianxia system. So, in the first section, I assume the need to think theoretically about the international system beyond the narrow margins of the Western narrative. Later, I discuss the main aspects of the Tianxia system. Subsequently, I analyze the contributions and limitations of the Tianxia concept, considering the relations between China and Latin America under the horizons of the Belt and Road Initiative. Finally, I conclude that despite the implicit limitations of the Tianxia theoretical approach, its most important contribution is that it allows us to explore other theoretical perspectives to expand our possibilities of understanding international scenarios beyond the dominant paradigms of the International Relations.