China's Presence in South America Is Considerably Larger Than in Africa, but We Never Hear About It

China's engagement in Africa is often seen by many observers in a vacuum without a broader understanding of how the relationship compares to Beijing's strategy in other regions of the world. South America, in particular, provides an interesting contrast for how China's engagement is both similar to what it's doing in Africa but also highlights a number of fascinating distinctions.

Dr. Matt Ferchen is a leading expert on Chinese-South American relations. Dr. Ferchen is an associate professor of international relations at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing and a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, where he runs the China and the Developing World Program.

Dr. Ferchen joins Eric & Cobus -- in the podcast above -- for the latest installment in our ongoing series of China and the world discussions to compare China's engagement in Africa with what it's doing in Latin and South America.

Watch Eric Olander discuss U.S. and Chinese competition for influence in Africa on HuffPost Live: