Juan Pablo Sims Seve is a Professor in the Faculty of Government and a Researcher at the Centre of International Relations Studies, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a PhD in International Politics from Fudan University, China. His research lies at the intersection of international relations, international political economy and global governance, with a particular focus on Latin America, regional integration, strategic autonomy and great-power competition. His work examines how Latin American countries navigate external pressure, international hierarchy and changing global power dynamics, including in their relations with China and other major powers.Brice Tseen Fu Lee is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and is affiliated with the Faculty of Government at Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He earned his PhD in International Politics from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, China, where his research examined hedging, dependency and development in Southeast Asia. His broader research interests include international relations, international political economy, Chinese foreign policy, global governance and Global South co-operation, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia, Latin America and China’s engagement with the developing world.

• 1 Framing the Study of China–Latin America Relations 2 Autonomy and Coherence: A New Framework 3 Narrative Patterns in China–LAC Diplomacy 4 A Configurational Analysis of LAC Responses to China 5 Institutional Agency: Chile, Venezuela and Mexico 6 Hemispheric Structure and the Autonomy Problem 7 Autonomy under Constraint Intensification 8 Autonomy Reconsidered: Implications for Latin America. Appendices