Opinion | ‘Old friend’ Lula’s election victory no guarantee of warm Brazil-China ties of yesteryear
- Lula’s victory over Jair Bolsonaro brings back a president with a pro-Beijing record, but the geopolitical context has changed since the early 2000s
- Rather than repeat the past, Lula will try to attempt to balance relations with the US and China while pursuing greater regional integration
He also made a bold statement to the international community: “Brazil is back.”
Messages of congratulations from world leaders flooded in shortly after Lula’s victory was declared on Sunday evening. The speedy congratulations sought to head off any attempts by Bolsonaro to dispute the results of the election, but it’s likely they were also heartfelt.
Besides his popularity with Obama, Lula is known in Beijing as an “old friend”. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian expressed hopes that Lula would take the China-Brazil partnership to a “new level”. Lula put China at the top of his foreign policy agenda during his first two terms as president, framing his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as the most important foreign visit of his presidency.
He oversaw the intertwining of China and Brazil’s economies and designated China as a strategic ally in the fight to reform what he saw as an “international system marked by inequality”. Lula also helped create the BRICS grouping in 2006, combining the major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and later South Africa.
