A short thread on China-Bolivia relations as we celebrate the watershed victory of MAS and the return of people's democracy to Bolivia:

Chinese investment played a crucial role in MAS's state-led agenda of national development and independence from international financial institutions such as the IMF.

Between 2000 and 2014, bilateral trade between the two nations exploded from $75.3 million to $2.25 billion.

MAS leaders often contrast Chinese investment from Bolivia's past subjugation under IMF austerity.

As Evo Morales put it after meetings with Xi Jinping in 2018, "China's support and aid to Bolivia's economic and social development never attaches any political conditions."

In 2018, Bolivia entered the Belt and Road Initiative. As of 2015, China had committed $10 billion in investment for transporation and energy infrastructure as part of Morales' Five-Year National Development Plan.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-06/19/c_137265305.htm

Ironically, Chinese investment in Bolivia has been railed against by U.S. diplomats as predatory and exploitative.

Yet President-elect Luis Arce has drawn a sharp contrast between Chinese and Russian bilateralism and U.S. imperialism.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/30/bolivias-socialist-presidential-candidate-luis-arce-speaks-about-elections-covid-19-and-fascist-oppression/

China's role in Bolivia's lithium industry, nationalized under MAS, drew particular ire from imperialists and Western transnational corporations.

In 2019 a Chinese firm was tapped lithium projects which would protect state ownership over lithium extraction and manufacturing.

After MAS nationalized lithium and seized and suspended operations of transnational corporations such as Glencore and South American Silver, they faced lawsuits demanding tens of millions of dollars in "compensation" https://asiatimes.com/2019/11/chinas-links-with-morales-figure-in-bolivia-coup/

Evo Morales described his forced removal as a "lithium coup" motivated by Western transnational corporations that had been "left out" of Bolivia's lithium partnerships with Chinese and European firms. https://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/1206716376498479114

The brief Áñez regime reduced ties with China, Cuba, & Russia, and attempted to force through new IMF loans—making clear the coup aimed to remake Bolivia as a neocolonial dependency.

May MAS's victory mark a new era in Bolivian self-determination and Chinese-Bolivian friendship!