Cooperation of mutual benefit flourishes across Pacific

My first visit to China after taking office as minister was aimed at meeting with key Chinese government officials and building ties to facilitate exchanges of views on important aspects of the bilateral relationship.

I'm aware, and have a deep understanding of, how China has progressed in its openness to the world and in science and technology. As a result, China is now a major global player and a key trading partner for many countries, including Chile.

What has been done in recent years has been impressive, and I saw it firsthand during my visit.

To understand China today, one must go back over 40 years, to the start of reform and opening-up. Over these four decades of opening to the outside world, China has seen notable economic development that has reduced the number of people living in poverty and fostered initiatives that promote sustainable development and environmental protection.

Last year, China and Chile celebrated 20 years of the Free Trade Agreement signed between the two countries. In 2017, both countries completed the FTA upgrading negotiations, incorporating areas not included in the previous version, such as e-commerce, financial services and competition policy.

Over these 20 years, the way Chilean consumers relate to Chinese products has changed as much in form as in scale. China is Chile's leading source of imports, worth over $26 billion in 2025, and what used to be predominantly industrial trade — machinery and electronics — now includes categories like electric vehicles and solar panels. But the real structural shift has happened at the consumer level, through cross-border e-commerce.

The e-commerce chapter has allowed consumers in both countries to purchase through major platforms that are becoming increasingly important. In China, many consumers buy Chilean products online, while in Chile, e-commerce platforms are gaining penetration every day.

Chile is Latin America's most mature digital market, and today at least 58 percent of all international online purchases made by Chileans come directly from Chinese platforms — AliExpress, Shein and Temu. Over 54 million international packages entered Chile in 2024 alone, and the average shipment value dropped from about $97 in 2021 to under $30 today, which shows how this has evolved from an occasional, high-value purchase to a frequent, low-ticket, everyday habit across every socioeconomic segment. And this trend is about to accelerate further.

Chinese consumers' appetite for Chilean cherries and salmon remains very strong — and it's evolving in three directions: territory, format and use. In the 2025-26 season, China absorbed about 87 percent of our cherry exports, and that demand is spreading well beyond the traditional coastal hubs and beyond the Chinese New Year gifting season: Chilean cherries now reach second — and third-tier cities across almost every Chinese provincial region, exporters are adapting package sizes to different regional preferences, and the fruit is increasingly an everyday product rather than only a festival gift, especially among younger consumers. Salmon tells a similar story — Atlantic salmon exports to China more than doubled in the first half of 2026.

This growth rests on real safeguards, and we've just taken a major step forward on the customs side: in April this year, Chile became the first country in the world to implement 100 percent electronic, paperless phytosanitary certification for agricultural exports to China, developed jointly by our Agricultural and Livestock Service and China's General Administration of Customs. After eight months of pilot operations, there were zero customs holds — it's now running smoothly at every Chinese port. Combined with China's green-channel fast-track clearance and dedicated lanes for perishables, a shipment can move from ship to wholesale market in under four hours.

On the logistics side, Chile is not only relying on traditional gateways like Shanghai and Guangzhou. We are also actively leveraging China's own push to develop the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region — the "Jing-Jin-Ji" coordinated development strategy — which is expanding shipping routes and logistics hubs around the Bohai Rim ports. Chilean fruit is already reaching Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei directly through this corridor, opening a new, direct gateway into central and northern China, alongside its growing presence in western China through Chengdu.

All of this is underpinned by the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement. The protocol upgrading the FTA came into force in 2019 and put around 98 percent of traded products under zero tariff.

In terms of digital infrastructure and computing power, the synergy between our two countries lies in combining Chile's strategic resource assets with China's technological scale and hardware expertise. For Chile, exchange and cooperation with China in this area help strengthen its strategic capabilities in infrastructure, energy, digital skills and innovation, drawing on China's experience and cutting-edge technology.

As Chile and China deepen their links, greater mutual knowledge becomes indispensable. Every year, many cultural events take place in both countries, bringing Chinese artists to Chile and Chilean ones to China. China is a country of poets, and so is Chile, and sharing our literature with the Chinese reading public has been another priority. Looking ahead, we would like to continue working with China on ways to strengthen Mandarin instruction in Chile.

The visa exemption for Chilean nationals established by China in May 2025 for tourism, business, family or friends' visits, and cultural activities is a decision Chilean travelers highly value. Chile already has a mechanism in place to facilitate business visas for Chinese citizens, and we are working to implement, in the short term, a visa facilitation process for Chinese citizens visiting Chile for cultural and academic purposes.

We look forward to continuing to encourage mutual understanding and dialogue with the Chinese people.

The author is foreign minister of Chile.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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