/ world today news/ The next head of state visiting the People’s Republic of China these days is Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva. His visit is key and significant because Brazil is one of the foundations of the multipolar world order and a member of BRICS. Even before the Brazilian leader’s visit, it was expected that this visit would give an additional impetus to the development of bilateral relations and, more importantly, to the overall construction of a multipolar world order without hegemons.
“The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is in the past,” declared Lula da Silva during the inauguration as president of the New BRICS Development Bank of former president (daughter of a Bulgarian communist) Dilma Rousseff.
And indeed, these words proved significant. Not only is Brazil back in full force in international politics, but it is expanding its participation in decision-making, strengthening its strategic sovereignty from those countries that imagine that they have the right to control everything (without, however, spoiling its relations with them). .
China and Brazil are cooperating not only to build a fairer international order without hegemons, “containment” and confrontation, but also in the fight to reduce poverty, as well as within the framework of the “One Belt, One Road” projects.
Lula da Silva arrived in China with a rather large delegation, and this is also his first visit after recovering from pneumonia. By the way, it is indicative that Lula’s delegation to China is larger than his delegation for the visit to the USA. Apart from ministers, businessmen and his fellow party members, even congressmen from the opposition are with the president. Which is a clear indication that the course of Brazilian-Chinese rapprochement is not only accepted by the left, but also by the right. But about the relationship of the two political spectrums in Brazil to China, a little further down.
One of the things that the president of the South American country did in China was to visit the Huawei company, which, as you know, has been seriously attacked by the Americans, as well as by media close to them. However, it turns out that despite the American stigmatization against the Chinese giant, Huawei products are widely used throughout Brazil.
Another interesting fact about Brazil-China relations is that 27 percent of Brazil’s exports are to the People’s Republic of China, which is more than the country exports to the United States, with whom it still coexists in the Americas region. China buys soy products, beef and iron ore from the Brazilians, paying literally tens of billions of dollars (or the dollar equivalent).
And although the US has intervened repeatedly in Brazilian public life and politics over the past century and more, the country has taken an increasingly sovereign and independent course, pursuing its national interests instead of US doctrines and policies.
The fact is that the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, had criticisms of China and was more inclined to follow the US course. He made some statements regarding Huawei and also the pandemic that followed the American narrative. But even with it, Brazil-China trade increased in volume. In the second part of his presidency, especially after Trump left office, Bolsonaro changed his rhetoric, apparently realizing that in the new world order, countries like Brazil and China have much to say and cooperate on. Still, the PRC helped Brazil with both vaccines and other issues. Today, under the new old president Lula da Silva, the expectations are that the ties will strengthen even more, given that the left-wing politician is one of the “fathers” of BRICS.
The visit is Lula da Silva’s fifth visit to the People’s Republic of China and his first outside the Western Hemisphere since he became president again for a third term in 2021.
Lula’s delegation was originally supposed to include 240 representatives, from ministers and governors to senators, congressmen and businessmen. However, he canceled his visit due to his illness, which led some impatient Brazilian businessmen to visit the People’s Republic of China without their president. Even before Lula’s visit, the media were confident that the Brazilian president would sign about 20 bilateral agreements with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. One of them has a special view towards the future and scientific and technical development. It is about the joint construction of CBERS-6 – the sixth satellite built by China and Brazil.
Cooperation is also deepening in the agricultural sphere, as Brazil has a huge agricultural production that the huge Chinese market needs – from soy products to beef. Brazil, for its part, has an interest in advanced Chinese technologies, from 6G and Chinese semiconductor manufacturing to all kinds of electronics.
Cooperation between Brazil and China strengthens not only the ties between the two countries, but also between Asia and Latin America. Moreover, this cooperation deepens the course towards a multipolar world order, in which countries will be able to pursue their national interests and cooperate peacefully without being threatened, manipulated and commanded by other countries that have considered themselves to be world hegemons. Brazil has a bitter experience with foreign interference by, for example, the United States and American services such as the CIA. China, for its part, also has bitter experience from the era when Western powers in the 19th century, until the proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1949, interfered in its internal affairs. The two countries, based on this history, will certainly cooperate to prevent this from happening again and to create a more just international order.
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