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Dr. Taotao Chen, Professor of International Business and Economics at the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University (Tsinghua SEM), one of China’s leading economics and business schools, is one of the Chinese intellectuals with the greatest knowledge about Latin America.
Currently, Professor Chen is Director of the Latin America Center at Tsinghua University and Director of the Center for China-Latin America Management Studies at Tsinghua SEM. From these positions, she has developed important work aimed at strengthening academic, economic, and cooperative ties between China and Latin America. In August 2026, she visited our country as part of the «China–Latin America Youth Responding to Global Challenges Poverty Alleviation Challenge 2026» the awards ceremony for which was held at the Faculty of Administration and Economics of the University of Santiago de Chile (USACH).
In this interview, we spoke about the investment conditions that Latin America represents for China, the poverty reduction methodology used by China called «5W1H+», and the challenges for universities and research centers in the current geopolitical context.
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Javier Pineda (JP): Professor Chen, from your academic experience and as director of the Latin America Center at Tsinghua University, what do you consider to be the main challenges and opportunities today in terms of investment to deepen the relationship between China and Latin America?
Dra. Taotao Chen (TC): That is a wonderful question. Cross-border investment is a very complex issue that requires companies to have comprehensive capabilities. Basically, there are differences between the home country and the host country. To be a competent multinational company, you need, at the very least, to appropriately transfer technology and capabilities from the home country and, at the same time, understand the business environment of the host country in order to develop an appropriate localization strategy that allows you to leverage the excellent local factors.
China and Latin American countries are very far apart and very different. That is why, at the beginning, Chinese companies faced many challenges in this part of the world. Fortunately, after all these years of effort, most of them have become more familiar with the local business environment and have established many relationships with local companies, governments, and universities, which allows them to better manage their localization strategy. Today we can see some important projects by Chinese companies that are already recognized by Latin Americans themselves.
However, due to those differences, we still need to understand each other better. It is clear that developing countries—and in this sense, both China and the countries of Latin America are developing countries—are still looking for how to find our own path towards development. We see that governments are seeking policies to encourage foreign companies to align with their national development strategies, and that is a trend.
For multinational companies, thoroughly understanding a government’s development strategy is relatively difficult, but Chinese companies are working on it. In China, we have the experience that when we opened up, multinational companies that understood China’s development strategy were able to seize more opportunities, do good business, and create win-win situations. That is why we really want to encourage our companies to understand not only the basic business environment but also where the country wants to go, why, and what capabilities we have to accompany them. That is a very important capability that we must accumulate.
On the other hand, for any multinational company, the stability of the business environment is key. When we first arrived and compared with other countries in the region, we saw that Chile has a relatively more stable business environment that is very favorable for the arrival of foreign companies, which gives us comfort and confidence. However, the world has become a bit more complex, and being so far away, we really look for stable environments to be able to make good investments and create win-win situations with the host countries.
Regarding Chinese investment here, as I said, after so many years, some Chinese companies already know the environment better and do good business. We have good examples, such as the company CGE, which provides electricity to a large part of Chilean society. I have spoken with its senior executives, and they feel that the technology accumulated in China can be applied very well here. The technology developed in China is relatively advanced, and they find ways to create the conditions to implement it. I like this a lot: China used to be a developing country, and although we still are, we have already accumulated more advanced technology that we can use in Latin America and that can benefit the region. I think that is exactly what a multinational company should do.
There is also a clear difference in the way challenges are approached. In China, the government has a clear leadership role in policy implementation, and everyone follows that direction. In contrast, in this part of the world, due to the different systems, there is more responsibility on the companies themselves, which we call social responsibility. That is also a challenge for Chinese companies, because they need to know the local particulars in much more detail. Fortunately, over time, we already see companies that have become more familiar with society and are beginning to exercise their corporate responsibility here; CGE is also an example in that regard.
JP: Speaking of responsibility and development, I wanted to ask you about the «5W1H+» methodology and how, from your perspective, this tool can contribute to understanding poverty reduction in China.
TC: The program we are carrying out now, «China–Latin America Youth Responding to Global Challenges,» addresses the great challenge of poverty that almost all developing countries face. All countries have put great effort into solving this problem and have accumulated many experiences and «recipes.» However, precisely because countries are very different from each other, these unique experiences are difficult to transfer and learn. At the same time, poverty is a very complex issue that no single institution or country can solve alone.
This program seeks precisely to promote mutual learning and the exchange of experiences. To facilitate this, we are establishing a methodology: the «5W1H.» Basically, we try to use this methodology to break down the logic of poverty elimination. First, you have to clearly define what poverty phenomenon we want to address, when it occurs, where, and what type of poverty we are referring to. Then, we analyze why that poverty exists. Afterwards, we think about who is going to solve the problem, and here we find that there are always multiple institutions working together: governments, universities, companies, NGOs, etc., that must collaborate to achieve it.
Within that analysis, we see who does what in the poverty alleviation process. The «5W1H+» is basically a way to simplify the logic of poverty eradication to facilitate the exchange of experiences. For example, if we see a good practice in China, many foreign friends might think: «The Chinese government is very strong, it can do it, but in our different system, maybe we cannot.» However, with the «5W1H» framework, we can ask ourselves: in different countries, facing a similar poverty phenomenon, who could play the role that the Chinese government played in that context? That kind of framework and that key question can facilitate the process of learning from experiences.
In fact, after years of research, I have also found wonderful stories in Latin America, in Chile, Brazil, and Peru, that we can analyze with this same methodology. Therefore, this method seeks to facilitate mutual learning and the exchange of experiences in the fight against poverty.
JP: Finally, considering the profound transformation of the global geopolitical and economic context, what role do you believe universities should play in building joint solutions between China and Latin America?
TC: As I mentioned, poverty is a great challenge for all developing countries. Each one accumulates its own experiences, and we know that if we can learn from each other, we all benefit. However, the difficulties arising from differences between countries make people feel that it is difficult to learn from others. That is a task that must fall on the shoulders of researchers, research centers, and university professors. We must think of methodologies and innovative ways to address this problem.
In our program, we do several things. First, we create the methodology and provide it to all participants. Then, we encourage mutual learning among students, forming international teams where they must solve problems and learn from each other, discussing and seeking solutions with a perspective of mutual benefit. We also offer conferences, seminars, and international mentoring to help them.
Universities and research centers must face real challenges and think with our capabilities, creating the appropriate methodology and platforms to solve global problems. Furthermore, we must invite young people to join these platforms and work with us. At the core of this program are the young people, who learn from each other.
We want to invite different actors—universities, governments, and companies—to join us because innovation for development is very complex and requires everyone’s effort. With the effort of the students as the central axis, we aspire to make good projects a reality and truly benefit the people who need them most. That is the design of the entire program. We are on the way, in the middle of a journey, trying to make it happen.
JP: Thank you very much, Professor, for sharing your vision and the work you are doing from Tsinghua University to strengthen ties with our region.
TC: Thank you very much for the opportunity.
La entrada Interview with Dr. Chen, Director of the Latin America Center of Tsinghua University: Investment, cooperation, and the role of universities in the China-Latin America relationship se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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