Chilean Business Leaders in the Face of the Geopolitical Rivalry Between the United States and China

Abstract

The growing rivalry between the United States and China has introduced new tensions for small economies highly dependent on international trade. In this context, this article analyzes how Chilean business leaders interpret the competition between the two countries and what strategies they consider appropriate to face an international environment characterized by uncertainty, fragmentation, and systemic pressure. Unlike approaches that conceive business actors merely as economic interest groups, this work proposes understanding them as actors capable of producing strategic diagnoses about the international order —a particularly relevant issue in the case of internationally oriented business elites increasingly integrated into spaces of commercial diplomacy. The findings show that Chilean business elites have begun to reinterpret the international environment through categories associated with structural vulnerability, geoeconomic risk, and systemic competition. In response, actors advocate strategies aimed at preserving room for maneuver through equidistance, market diversification, strengthening multilateralism, and deepening ties with emerging actors.