China-Brazil ties at 50: Good friends, good partners, and Global South rise

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, China and Brazil, since the start of the year, have conducted many activities, including the release of a commemorative logo featuring the number 50 and the colors of the two national flags, holding various seminars and conferences, and working together to secure the opening of a consulate general of Brazil in southwest China's Chengdu, to name just a few.

On August 15, 1974, China and Brazil established diplomatic relations. In 1993, the two countries established a strategic partnership, making Brazil the first developing country to do so. In 2012, Brazil became the first major Latin American country to elevate bilateral relations with China to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Then, in April 2023, during a state visit to China by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the two sides issued a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin in Beijing in June that the two countries should take the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to fully strengthen exchanges and cooperation between legislative bodies, political parties, local governments, and youth in such fields as culture, education, and tourism, so as to pool more friendly forces and provide stronger support for China-Brazil cooperation.

Good friends, good partners

The China-Brazil cooperation covers a wide range of fields, including both traditional areas and emerging fields such as green economy, digital economy and innovation.

As part of sci-tech cooperation, the two countries have worked closely in the field of space for 36 years. Clezio Marcos de Nardin, director of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) of Brazil, told China Media Group in a recent interview that six satellites have been jointly developed under the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program.

The INPE chief said bilateral satellite cooperation has played a positive role in Brazil's environmental monitoring, such as protecting the Amazon rainforest and disaster relief efforts.

In terms of agriculture cooperation, Brazil has been the top source of China's overall agricultural imports since 2018. Data from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that in 2023, Brazil exported $58.618 billion of agricultural products to China, accounting for 24.85 percent of China's overall agricultural imports, far larger than the 13.96 percent from the United States, which came in second.

China-Brazil cooperation ranges "from space to soybeans." China has been Brazil's largest trading partner, export market and source of trade surplus for 15 consecutive years. Brazil is also China's largest trading partner in Latin America.

"China and Brazil are good friends sharing the same vision and good partners marching forward hand in hand," Xi said during the June meeting with the Brazilian vice president at the Great Hall of the People.

China is ready to work with Brazil to seek greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's development strategies, such as the New Industry Brazil, Xi said.

Far beyond bilateral scope

China and Brazil are the two biggest developing countries and emerging markets in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, respectively.

The China-Brazil relationship "has gone far beyond the bilateral scope" and has exemplary significance for promoting solidarity and cooperation among developing countries as well as world peace and stability, said Xi during his meeting with Alckmin in June.

During an interview with CMG, Vice President Alckmin said what Brazil and China have achieved in their cooperation is reflected, first and foremost, in their joint safeguarding of multilateralism in global geopolitics and free trade.

"We need to strengthen multilateral organizations, support multilateralism, and work for a more just, peaceful, and united world that values development," he said.

As part of their efforts to help address global hotspot issues, China and Brazil jointly issued a six-point consensus in May on the common understanding of the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, which has received positive responses from more than 110 countries.

The six common understandings were reached following talks between Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Celso Amorim, chief advisor to the President of Brazil, in Beijing.

Wang said in talks that the world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with the international situation becoming chaotic and intertwined and hotspot issues emerging one after another.

"It is heartening to see that the Global South countries represented by China and Brazil have achieved a collective rise and promoted a more balanced and reasonable structure of world power," he said.