欧

At the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Roberto Velasco Álvarez visited China from September 6 to 7 — his first trip to China since taking office, and his second trip to Asia in a matter of weeks, having visited South Korea from August 23 to 25. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun at a regular press briefing on September 3, Velasco's itinerary took him to Beijing, where he held talks with Wang Yi, followed by Chongqing, where he inaugurated Mexico's new consulate. The visit was also part of a broader run of recent meetings between Wang Yi and foreign ministers from across Latin America, reflecting a deepening of China's overall diplomatic engagement with the region.

Velasco, 38, born September 14, 1987, is the youngest foreign minister in recent Mexican history. A longtime aide to former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, he became Undersecretary for North America at Mexico's Foreign Ministry in October 2025, served as acting head of the ministry from December 2025 to January 2026, and was formally nominated by President Claudia Sheinbaum as Secretary of Foreign Affairs on April 1, 2026, before being confirmed by the Senate. He succeeded Juan Ramón de la Fuente, who had held the post since October 2024 and stepped down for health reasons.

China and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1972, making Mexico one of the earliest countries in Latin America to do so. Over more than half a century, bilateral economic ties have continued to expand; even as the trade imbalance has become more pronounced in recent years, total two-way trade has remained in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Velasco's visit also marked the first major opportunity since taking office for him to lay out Mexico's overall approach to China policy. His decision to travel specifically to Chongqing to preside over the new consulate's inauguration was seen as symbolically significant — Chongqing is a major inland hub in western China, a key node on the China-Europe Railway Express and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and has in recent years drawn growing interest from investors of multiple countries, including Mexican firms. Analysts say the move suggests Mexico hopes to use an expanded consular network to tap further into the economic potential of China's inland regions, rather than confining engagement to China's traditional coastal port cities. Mexico currently maintains only a handful of consular posts in China, and the new Chongqing office is seen as another step in gradually expanding Mexico's diplomatic and commercial footprint in the country in recent years.

Guo Jiakun said at the briefing that the visit would help "further enhance political mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote the steady growth of China-Mexico relations, and deliver more benefits to both peoples." Mexico's Foreign Ministry said the visit would help strengthen political dialogue and the cooperation agenda between the two countries. China and Mexico have established a comprehensive strategic partnership and have maintained diplomatic relations for more than 50 years. However, multiple reports indicate Velasco's itinerary did not include a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, focusing instead on bilateral talks with Wang Yi; Xi was reported to have just concluded a state visit to Egypt. No public information indicates any specific trade or investment agreement was signed during the visit, and commentary has generally characterized the trip as focused on dialogue and relationship management rather than a working visit aimed at signing major agreements.

Notably, the visit comes as the United States continues pressing Mexico to tighten its trade and investment ties with China, and as the 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) approaches. Multiple outlets report that, effective January 1, 2026, Mexico sharply raised tariffs on countries without a free trade agreement with it — a measure aimed primarily at China — lifting minimum tariffs to 35% across most affected categories and to 50% on automobiles; the tariff hike was approved by the Mexican Senate in December 2025 and is widely seen as closing a "back door" through which Chinese goods could reach the US market via Mexico. Meanwhile, according to research from the Dallas Federal Reserve, the effective US tariff rate on Chinese goods had reached 33.4% by December 2025, with tariffs on steel and aluminum exceeding 50% and on lithium-ion batteries at 25% — a combination of measures accelerating the "nearshoring" of manufacturing to Mexico and putting Mexico's position between the US and China under greater scrutiny.

This is not the first time Mexico has faced such pressure caught between the US and China. Several Chinese automakers have previously shelved or slowed plans to build plants in Mexico amid concerns over potential US political pushback, underscoring how Mexico's proximity to the US market — while giving it a natural advantage in absorbing shifting global supply chains — also makes it more vulnerable to being drawn into the vortex of US-China trade competition; whether Mexico can find a stable balance between the two economic giants going forward will remain an ongoing test of its diplomatic and industrial-policy judgment.

Trade data show that from January to July 2025, Mexican exports to China totaled roughly $5.36 billion, while Chinese exports to Mexico reached about $73.7 billion — a stark imbalance, with China running a large and persistent surplus (one estimate put the 2024 surplus at close to $120 billion). Amid the tariff friction, China's exports to Mexico had already fallen roughly 3% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025. Earlier this year, an official at China's consulate in Tijuana publicly said protectionism was a "dead end," an apparent reference to US-China trade tensions spilling over into the Mexican market. In terms of trade structure, Mexico's exports to China are dominated by minerals such as copper and silver along with some agricultural products, while its imports from China are concentrated in manufactured goods such as electronics, machinery and new-energy vehicle components — a "raw materials for manufactured goods" pattern that analysts say is one of the key structural reasons behind the long-standing bilateral trade imbalance.

Analysts say Velasco's China visit highlights Mexico's delicate diplomatic balancing act between the US and China: on one hand responding to Washington's demands to curb trade with China, and on the other, reluctant to fully sacrifice its economic ties with Beijing. While the visit produced no concrete agreements, it is being read as an important signal that China and Mexico are keeping high-level communication channels open during a sensitive period, with the future direction of the relationship still to be seen. Since taking office, President Sheinbaum's overall approach to China has followed a cautious, pragmatic dual-track logic — cooperating with the United States on nearshoring and tightening tariffs on Chinese goods, while remaining unwilling to fully shut the door on economic ties with Beijing, in an effort to preserve some strategic room to maneuver between Washington and Beijing. Velasco's visit to China is widely seen as a continuation of, and further evidence for, that broader policy stance.