On September 12th, 1991, the vice-foreign ministers of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Latvia signed Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Latvia，from then on China and Latvia officially established diplomatic relations.
On January 4th , 1992, the Chinese Embassy in Latvia was founded. Towards the end of January of the same year, Latvian government established so-called consular relations with Taiwan authorities and allowed Taiwan authorities to open a "Consulate-General" in Riga in early February. As a result, the Chinese government decided to withdraw the Chinese Embassy from Latvia. In July, 1994, a Latvian government delegation visited China, during which Latvian side reaffirmed its stances of upholding One-China Policy, and promised to sever consular relations with Taiwan authorities. China and Latvia then announced the normalization of bilateral relations. In August of the same year, the Chinese Embassy resumed its work in Riga.
Heads of state, heads of government and other high-level political leaders of China and Latvia have made numerous visits after the normalization of bilateral ties. In June 2002, Chinese President Jiang Zemin made a state visit to Latvia. In November 2016, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the Meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European Countries and paid an official visit to Latvia. In April 2017, Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, visited Latvia. Besides, a number of Latvian presidents, premiers, speakers of the Saeima and other high-level political leaders have also visited China on multiple occasions. In addition, exchanges and cooperation between the parliaments, political parties, government departments at all levels of the two countries have been continuously close.
The cooperation between Chinese and Latvian enterprises has achieved increasingly fruitful results. At present, MGI Latvia Center, Stenders, Huawei's Latvian subsidiary, Kornbest, Baltic Birch Wave and other enterprises of China and Latvia are well-operating. According to Chinese statistics, the bilateral trade volume in 2024 was US$1.15 billion.
In November 2016, China and Latvia signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting the construction of the Belt and Road. Latvia was once a founding member of Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. In November 2016, Latvia hosted the fifth Meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European Countries.
In recent years, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries have been rich and colorful, and cooperation in education, culture, sports and local fields has been carried out smoothly. In 2011, the Confucius Institute in Latvia was established at the University of Latvia. In 2019, the China Cultural Center in Riga was officially inaugurated. The Chinese Wushu Association has established a cooperation mechanism with the Wushu Federations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. There are currently four pairs of sister cities between the two countries, namely Suzhou and Riga, Harbin and Daugavpils, Huludao and Jelgava, Beijing and Riga.