The Strategic Competition for Latin American Lithium: China’s leadership and the responses of the United States and the European Union

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the strategic competition between China, the United States and the European Union for control of the lithium industry. The current Chinese leadership in the sector generates tensions with potential Western companies, which seek to reduce their vulnerability and reposition their key industries through new industrial policies and international alliances. In this context, Latin America, with the world’s largest reserves of natural resources, becomes a crucial focus for systemic bidding. This dispute goes beyond mere access to the resource and expresses the struggle for the technological dominance of the energy transition. Thus, from a qualitative strategy based on the review of official documents, the research concludes that as China moves forward with a comprehensive and long-term technological development strategy focused on national capacity building, The United States and the European Union are deploying mainly defensive responses aimed at reducing their dependence.