Despite a common regional pattern of economic engagement between Latin America and China, consisting of exports of Latin American natural and energy resources and imports of Chinese manufactures, significant variations can be identified between the engagement strategies of Latin American states towards China between 2001 and 2016. To date, no major research efforts have been made to demonstrate and explain these variations by scholars of international relations (IR). This thesis aims to fill this gap building on the literature that explores the economic exchanges between China and the region. The research question that guides this thesis is: Why have Latin American countries developed significantly different engagement strategies for managing their relations with China between 2001 and 2016? To explain the varied strategies, I propose and test a neoclassical realist model, labelled “National Power and Perception” model, which incorporates two Independent Variables: a) Latin American countries’ position in the regional structure of power (systemic variable); and b) Latin American presidents’ perceptions of the US-led liberal order (domestic intervening variable). I develop a small-N comparative study with four cases, one typical case for each proposed type of engagement strategy (Mexico under Vicente Fox, Brazil under Lula da Silva, Chile under Ricardo Lagos, and Venezuela under Hugo Chávez). The findings suggest that the general hypothesis and the four specific hypotheses are confirmed. The interplay of both IVs explains the significant variation in the four types of Latin American engagement strategies towards China analysed in this thesis.