First ever Olympic Games in August 2016. On Thursday, Li will continue a Latin American swing designed to increase Chinese influence in the region, heading to Colombia before visiting Peru and Chile.

His tour comes days after Beijing signed accords worth $25 billion with Russia and $22 billion with India.

View galleryView of the Deodoro Olympic Park under
construction, & nbsp; & hellip;
View of the Deodoro Olympic Park under construction, which will host several games during the Rio 20 ....
Trade between China and Latin America as a whole exploded from barely $10 billion in 2000 to $255.5 billion to 2012.

- Boom in Sino-Brazilian trade -