Bibliometric Analysis of the China-CELAC Forum: Relevance, Challenges, and Prospects for Research

Resumen

Since its creation in 2015, the China-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Forum, has facilitated the creation of a channel for dialogue on different areas of interest, playing a transformative role in shaping multilateral relations and the internal dynamics of China and Latin America. However, despite its relevance in strengthening Sino-Latin American cooperation mechanisms in practical terms, there is currently a limited and thematically concentrated academic production on the Forum. The existing literature falls short of comprehensively addressing the importance and impact of the Forum in the development of relations between these two regions. For this reason, we conducted a bibliometric study to address the transformative role of the China-CELAC Forum. Drawing from a bibliographic search in the Scopus database, a mixed approach is used to determine the relationships between cited authors, keywords, and, subsequently, the temporal evolution of the studies and main thematic axes. The analysis shows a limited and thematically differentiated academic debate between the geopolitical-economic implications of the Forum and the China-US rivalry and their trade tensions, allowing the visualization of research opportunities for the deepening of national case studies and evaluations of “forum diplomacy”.