China exported US$1.5 billion of goods to El Salvador and imported US$105 million in 2019. The major commodities exported by China to El Salvador are machinery, textiles, plastic and rubbers, and various miscellaneous items. The major commodities that El Salvador exports to China are electrical capacitors, raw sugar, and coffee. Between 1995 and 2019, exports from El Salvador to China have increased at an annualized rate of 14.7%, while exports from China to El Salvador have increased at an annualized rate of 16.6%.[6]
In 2018, Asia Pacific Xuanhao (APX), a company with links to the
People's Liberation Army and
People's Armed Police, announced a plan to lease 225 hectares within and around the port at
La Unión.[7][8][9] The purpose of the lease remains undisclosed.[7][10] In 2021, the United States designated two individuals "corrupt and undemocratic actors" for acting as "agents of the People’s Republic of China in exchange for personal benefit."[11]
Upon
Nayib Bukele's visit to China in 2019, he had signed a series of
MoUs with
Xi Jinping, in which China would promise El Salvador a total of US$500 million in development projects. These projects include a new national football stadium, a new US$40 million national library, a tourist pier in
La Libertad and
Ilopango, and US$200 million on the "Surf City" project, thereby involving El Salvador in China's
Belt and Road Initiative.[7][12][13]
Nayib Bukele announced on
Twitter that a cooperation project granted by the People's Republic of China will have US$54 million new national library be built in El Salvador.[14] The Salvadoran President later announced on December 30, 2021, that the 50,000-capacity
Estadio Nacional de El Salvador will be built to replace
Estadio Cuscatlán as
El Salvador's national football stadium, at a cost of US$500 million, in collaboration with China.[15][16][17]
Foreign aid
In 2019, China offered El Salvador around US$150 million in social projects and 3,000 tons of rice to thousands of Salvadorian victims to droughts.[18]
The
COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador saw
vaccine diplomacy increase between China and El Salvador. El Salvador received from China 150,000 vaccine doses of the
CoronaVac vaccine donated by China, on top of 2 million
Sinovac vaccines that the Central American nation had purchased.[19]