Forging Strong Bonds Through Diplomacy. H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes

Forging Strong Bonds Through Diplomacy

More than 30 years of fruitful cooperation

H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes

Chile’s Ambassador to China

We recently had the privilege of speaking to Ambassador H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes to learn more about his extensive experience as a successful diplomat and businessman. Speaking of his background, Mr Schmidt told us that he is not a typical ambassador. He arrived in China in 1991. In his country, he was working in the private sector, and came to China on business for his winery.
At first, he found it difficult, because Chinese people were not familiar with the type of wine he produced, so he decided to engage in another business with fresh fruit. He saw a lot of business potential in China, and for this reason, he visited many times over the last 30 years, and developed several farms and other projects in China. Among many other initiatives, Mr Schmidt led the implementation in China of the Chile-China Experimental Demonstrative Farm for technological exchange on fruit species that was established in Tianjin, Jixian county, a 33-hectares devoted to growing table grapes, peaches, cherries, plums, walnuts, blueberries, apricots, etc...

Today there is a five-star hotel, conference centre, golf course and "ecology garden" on the site, not to mention a row of huge replicas of the famous Moais of Easter Island. Mr Schmidt also made a winning pitch to acquire Chile's pavilion from the Shanghai Expo 2010 site after that world fair ended. Nowadays, the resulting complex represents more tourism and less farming. The hotel and meeting rooms are usually fully booked.

Mr Schmidt said that he loves to take groups out to see the project, energetically testing the exercise equipment in the hotel's health club, pouring wine for guests and leading after-dinner songs. Fresh fruit may be good business, but under his wing it seems to be a lot of fun, too.

In 2005, when negotiations began for a free trade agreement between China and Chile, Mr Schmidt came to China to participate in the discussions. This was because he had been nominated as the President of the National Trade Union Federation of Fruit Producers (FEDEFRUTA) and was also President of the National Society of Agriculture (SNA).

In 2010, because he had a lot of experience in China, he was sent there by the Chilean government as ambassador.  Then, since he achieved good results during his first term, he was reappointed for a second term in 2018.
Asked about the changes he had observed in China, Mr Schmidt said that he finds it very different now compared to 30 years ago. He said that when he first arrived, people were very poor and had a tough life, but today, poverty has been eradicated. He also commented on the huge advances in technology, mentioning specifically features such as WeChat and 5G. He also pointed out that when he first arrived, nothing was known about e-commerce, but today it is a permanent feature of Chinese life, with intelligent houses, smart cities, and driverless taxis, among other things.
Furthermore, China has become the second strongest economy in the world, and in his opinion, is heading towards being the first in the next three or four years.

Mr Schmidt also expressed his admiration for the Chinese people and the efforts they have made to advance and develop, saying that their innovation and the advances they have made are amazing. He mentioned that a huge number of Chinese students have gone to study outside China at the best universities in the world.

With regard to his own business developments, Mr Schmidt spoke of having to adapt to doing business in China. He explained that in the Western world, if one has a quality product at a competitive price, one can succeed in business. However, he found that the Chinese have a Confucius mentality; when he told them he had a very good product at a low price, they did not simply believe him. Rather, they looked at him and tried to get to know him; they wanted to form a relationship. For this reason, he struggled a lot in the beginning, because with his occidental mentality, he wanted to transform the way he did business, but it was impossible. He learned that one needs to create a relationship–– guānxì––here. He said that for this reason, he now has a lot of good friends in China, and they have given him a lot of opportunities, not only for his business but for many other things, including things that affect his country. He knows a lot of people who, around 20 or 30 years ago, were beginning in the Party, beginning with the government, and today have become ministers with whom he can easily get meetings. 
Ambassador Schmidt said that for his country, China is very, very important, and that if China is good, Chile is good.

With regard to cooperation in terms of health during the pandemic, Mr Schmidt told us that at the beginning of the pandemic, in February, 2020, the President of the Republic of Chile, Mr Sebastián Piñera, offered to send doctors to Wuhan help China because Chile had a lot of good resources. But three months later, the coronavirus hit in Chile, and it caused a huge problem because Chile’s health system was not prepared for it, and they didn’t have ventilators or masks to protect the doctors.

The Embassy of Chile in Beijing then obtained ventilators and masks for the protection of doctors, and could later help further by sending more than 1,700 ventilators and millions of masks.  Chile also did not have a vaccine, so another good thing was that they began talking with the different pharmaceutical companies in China to obtain a vaccine.

In May of 2020, they signed an agreement with Sinovac, and were able to obtain a lot of vaccine, with the result that Chile currently has 90% of the total population vaccinated, the second or third highest percentage in the world. The infection rate has decreased, and they have reopened their borders.

In December last year, China and Chile achieved 50 years of diplomatic relations, and the presidents of the two countries acknowledged how they had helped each other in the pandemic.
In terms of key milestones in the relationship between China and Chile, Ambassador Schmidt told us that Chile was the first country in South America to forge a relationship with China. At that time, the world in general was very critical of China, but Chile recognized China in 1970.
Another important issue was when China wished to join the World Trade Organization. For that to happen, China had to be recognized as an open market economy. In the world of commerce, people were unwilling to recognize China, but Chile supported China’s bid to join the organization.

Furthermore, in 2005, Chile was the first country to sign a free trade agreement with China which was approved in 2006. As a result, over the last 15 years, Chile’s trade with China has increased by more than five times.

Another very remarkable aspect was that although this free trade agreement covered goods only, not service or investment, this also later changed. In 2010, when Mr Schmidt arrived as ambassador, he was able to negotiate the agreement to include service, and in 2012, to include investment. Thus, China is the only country with which Chile has a completely free trade agreement that includes goods, service, and investment. Then in 2019, there was a new free trade agreement that went deeper and included new topics, such as e-commerce, which Ambassador Schmidt points out is very important in the current pandemic context.
Mr Schmidt further told us that China is Chile’s primary partner in commercial trade, although Chile is China’s second partner in Latin America, the first being Brazil because Brazil is such a big country. However, Mr Schmidt feels that Chile is more advanced than Argentina, Peru, Colombia Venezuela, Ecuador, and other countries that are larger in term of population than Chile. 

Mr Schmidt views the establishment of a strong trade relationship between China and Chile as one of his main achievements during his time as ambassador. Today, China is Chile’s first partner in commercial trade because with all that has been happening in the world, the economies of many countries have gone into a recession, but China is the exception. Thus, as a first partner with China, Chile today is better off than it would have been without this partnership.

Another important achievement for Mr Schmidt occurred in 2010. He suggested to President Sebastián Piñera that since much of Chile’s wine and fruit trade was based in Guangzhou, the capital of the province of Canton, it would be a good idea to establish a consulate in that city. This would be difficult, because a consulate would permanently require lot of money. However, Mr Schmidt was able to convince the president, and in the middle of his first term of office, he opened the consulate in Guangzhou.
Mr Schmidt also told us that this was a repeat of history. The first consulate that Chile had in China was in 1870. At that time, a lot of Cantonese people were going to work in Latin America, principally in the meat trade and mining, but they were going not to Chile, but to Peru and Bolivia. At the time, the owners of the businesses kept these people’s passports so that they became slaves. When they tried to escape to Chile, they were asked for papers or ID which they didn’t have. For this reason Chile opened a consulate in Guangzhou, and this consulate existed from 1872 until 1910, when it was shut down and another consulate was opened in Hong Kong. However, Mr Schmidt reopened it in 2010, and today, Chile has consulates in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. Since these are all on the coast, there was a need for a consulate inland, so in the middle of this year (July 2021), Mr Schmidt opened a new Consulate General in Chengdu.
With regard to these remarkable achievements, and with all that has happened with the pandemic, Mr Schmidt said that he wished to acknowledge the effort of the embassy personnel. He said that it was not his effort alone, but that of the team, and that without them, these achievements would not be possible. 
外交铸造紧密
多年的合作硕果累累

路易斯•施密特•蒙特斯
智利驻华大使我们最近有幸与智利驻华大使路易斯•施密特•蒙特斯大使进行了对话，作为一名成功的外交官和商人，他有着丰富的经验。施密特先生第一次到中国是1991年，那时他还是商人，他在中国看到了很大的商业潜力，并在过去30年里多次来到中国，期间开发了几个农场和一个滑雪胜地。施密特先生还为实现两国的技术交流，在天津蓟县建立了智利-中国水果品种试验示范农场，面积约23公顷，用于种植葡萄和果树。今天，这里发展成了一个拥有五星级酒店、会议中心、高尔夫球场的综合“生态花园”。
由于施密特先生在中国积累了丰富的经验，2010年被智利政府派往中国担任大使。后由于他在第一个任期内取得了良好的成绩，于2018年再次连任智利驻华大使。
当被问及他在中国观察到的变化时，施密特先生说，现在的情况与30年前有着巨大的不同，相比第一次来中国的时候，今天的中国已经消除贫困，科技也取得了巨大进步，特别提到微信和5G等功能，当他第一次来这里的时候，人们对电子商务一无所知，但今天，电子商务和智能房屋、智能城市和无人驾驶出租车等已经成为了人们生活的一部分。
此外，中国已成为世界上第二强经济体，在施密特先生看来，中国将成为未来三四年内的第一个经济体。施密特先生还对中国人民及其为进步和发展所作的努力表示钦佩，称他们的创新和所取得的进步都是惊人的。 2020年5月，智利与科兴公司签署了一项协议，并获得了大量疫苗，目前智利有90%的人口接种了疫苗，这个比例位于世界前三，感染率下降了，智利重新开放了边境。
去年12月，中智建交50周年，两国总统承认两国在艾滋病疫情中相互帮助。关于中智关系中的重要里程碑，施密特大使告诉我们，智利是南美洲第一个与中国建立关系的国家。此外，2005年，智利是第一个与中国签署自由贸易协定的国家，该协定于2006年获得批准。因此在过去15年中，智利与中国的贸易增长了五倍多。
施密特大使说，中国对智利来说非常重要，中国好起来，智利才能好起来。

Forging Strong Bonds Through Diplomacy

More than 30 years of fruitful cooperation

H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes

Chile’s Ambassador to China

外交铸造紧密
多年的合作硕果累累

路易斯•施密特•蒙特斯
智利驻华大使

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