Economy in mind, Bolsonaro softens tone on China

What a difference a year makes. In months before last year’s presidential election in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro described China as predatory and thumbed his se at Chinese government by visiting Taiwan, Beijing’s archrival. w, as a more pragmatic president, Bolsonaro is welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping to an international summit that begins Wednesday in Brasilia, capital.

first item on nda for Bolsonaro, a far-right leer who has sometimes tried to hang communist label on his political rivals in Brazil, is a bilateral meeting with Xi. It’s a sign of how Bolsonaro views China as critical to his ambitions to rejuvenate Brazil’s sluggish ecomy.

Gone is last year’s fiery campaign trail rhetoric about China being a rapacious power intent on exploiting Brazilian resources.

China is, after all, Brazil’s biggest tring partner.

As China expanded rapidly in 2000s, eventually becoming world’s second-largest ecomy, it relied on commodities from producers. Brazil, Latin America’s largest ecomy, shipped soybeans, iron ore and crude to satisfy China’s voracious appetite. Those three products account for more than 80% of Brazil’s exports to China.

Xi’s visit for a meeting of leers of BRICS emerging ecomies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is his first to Brazil since 2014.

But his relationship with Bolsonaro has alrey been blossoming.

Just last month, Bolsonaro traveled to Beijing for ecomic and or accords, including exemption of Chinese nationals from Brazil visa requirements. Xi received him in his car and y walked side-by-side on a long, red carpet.

“Bolsonaro discovered how important China is to Brazil and that he can do business with China. And he’s more or less happy with that,” said Mauricio Santoro, professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro’s state university, UERJ.

Before he became president, Bolsonaro praised U.S. and President Donald Trump. He often said China can buy from Brazil, but t buy Brazil itself — rhetoric that continued for a while after he took office Jan. 1.

hostile remarks didn’t last, though.

Brazil is dependent on foreign investment, especially from China.

Confirmed Chinese investments in Brazil between 2007 and 2018 totaled almost $60 billion, more than any or Latin American country, according to Brazil-China Business Council, a Brazilian research center.

Investments faltered in 2018 ahe of Brazil’s election, part of a broer decline stemming from investor caution.

After Bolsonaro won presidency, he took his first trip abro to U.S., n in midst of a growing tre dispute with China. But Brazil didn’t get caught in middle.

“Brazil has all reasons to work with both countries and t pick sides,” said Pepe Zhang, associate China director at Washington-based Atlantic Council. “So far, it’s doing a good job.”

In August, amid Western criticism of Brazil’s handling of fires raging in Amazon, China defended Brazil. Bolsonaro described China’s support as “priceless.”

As Brazil-Chinese diplomacy vances, re are delicate issues to navigate.

U.S., for example, is pressuring Brazilian government to exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its auction next year to provide a 5G network.

U.S. State Department says that Huawei poses cybersecurity risks and that it will review way it shares intelligence about Venezuela with Brazil if Huawei is allowed to provide 5G service.

U.S. and Brazil consider Venezuelan President Nicolás Muro to be illegitimate and want him to resign.

China, er for repayment of billions of dollars in oil-backed loans it extended to Venezuelan President Nicolas Muro’s socialist ministration, continues to support his regime.

Bolsonaro kws he won’t find common ground with Xi on Venezuela when y meet, and will likely focus on luring more Chinese investment and tre, said Santoro, international relations professor.

Bolsonaro, a fringe lawmaker until his campaign, earned nickname ” Trump of Tropics” for his rejection of politically correct discourse, and many of his supporters came to see him as a cruser willing to impose morality on a political system rife with corruption and a society suffering from violent crime.

But he has been more reined in on ecomy. He handed reins of ecomic policymaking to a University of Chicago-trained ecomist who is taking steps to improve business conditions, reduce tre barriers of Brazil’s protected market, and carry out a vast privatization program.

Some Brazilians were concerned that Bolsonaro as president would assume a “bipolar vision of world” and closely align with U.S. at expense of China relations, said José Pio Borges, president of Cabri, a Brazilian research center that studies China. “w, after all se reunions and initiatives, it’s clear that Brazil wants to have relationships with everyone,” Borges said.