While Trump focuses on his trade war, Brazil and China close closer relationships China

FEW world leaders can say that they were hugged by XI Jinping, China's typical reserved president. Last year, a hug between XI and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin seemed to summarize the cozy relationship between China and Russia – albeit sometimes a bit uncomfortable.

Now the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can have broken the handshake barrier with the Chinese guide. After a speech in Beijing, Lula stepped off the stage and shook Xi's hand, but the moment quickly melted into something more too more.

Xi had a good reason to feel warm towards the Brazilian guide. In Lula's speech to the China-Celac forum, he condemned a dialogue between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries. He condemned US tariffs and said that the Latin American region wanted “the axis of a multipolar order in which the global south is properly represented”. Such words reflect the case that China has tried to go to the world – especially in the countries of the global south – about the dangers of tariffs triggered by US President Donald Trump since entering the White House in January.

China's argument is in contrast to the attitude of the G7, a group of the richest nations in the world, which published a common communique on Thursday, in which they agreed to counteract global “economic imbalances”, a veiled blow in China.

Lula's presence in the forum was itself a coup for China because it tries to expand its global influence in Latin America. Lula was one of three heads of state who took part in the conference together with the President Chile and Colombia. That was no coincidence. China had expressly courted the leaders of the countries that were influential in the region and closer to the United States, and not those from the countries that were naturally viewed with the Communist Chinese Party such as Venezuela and Cuba. Lula in particular got a complete bell and whistles wilting in Beijing with a military performance on the place in the Tiananmenian square, including a 21-weapon greeting.

In a keynote speech in the forum, XI China identified as a member of the global south.

“Independence and autonomy are our glorious tradition. Development and revitalization are our inherent law,” said XI. China and the Latin American and Caribbean community have a “future together”, he added.

Since Trump's first office, Brazil has been at the top of the narrowing of relationships between China and Latin America. An important domain was the trade, which achieved a record of USD 157.5 billion in 2023. Last year, China imported more than 70% of his soybeans from Brazil, while the imports of US farmers have dropped. Luckin Coffee, China's largest coffee chain, has undertaken to buy 240,000 tons of Brazilian coffee beans worth 1.38 billion USD over a period of five years.

“If it is up to my government, our relationship with China will be indestructible,” Lula told the managers in Beijing, when the two countries announced 4.5 billion USD in upcoming Chinese investments in Brazil. Overall, Brazil and China signed 20 agreements on the agricultural trade as well as deals on mining, nuclear energy and currency change.

“From a commercial point of view, the current US China trade war has brought some export opportunities for Brazil, especially in the agricultural sector,” said Victoria Chonn-Ching, an unspecified scholarship holder at the Atlantic Council.

With a trading policity landscape that can change overnight, Beijing also tries to win the ideological argument on the global stage. Brazil, which China sees as a co -driver in the global south, is an important player in this strategy.

“From a geostrategic and diplomatic point of view, the US China trade war Brazil puts in a challenging position,” said Chonn-Ching.

While Brazil has maintained strong relationships with the United States, his relationship with China, on the other hand, is important, said Chonn-Ching, since “both countries promote multilateralism as part of their foreign policy and see themselves as a leading role in their respective regions and in the global south”.

In contrast to many other countries in Latin America, Brazil has not registered the China's belt and street initiative. Lula said in Beijing that Latin America “does not want to be the level of hegemonic disputes”.

While Trump's vision for global order is still in focus, Beijing has exceeded the importance of a “multipolar” system of international cooperation for years. It is a feeling that Lula repeats.

The two countries have also brought the recent global events closer together. After the attacks on October 7 in Israel, Brazil, as President of the UN Security Council, a resolution in which Hamas condemned and a humanitarian break in hostility and the release of hostages in Gaza were requested. Many expected China that only had this month In particular, the attacks condemned to set the resolution a veto. In Brazil with Brazil, however, China voted in favor. The resolution ultimately failed because of a US veto.

Since then, Brazil and China have come closer to fill up as an intermediary in global conflicts. The countries have published twice statements on the war in Ukraine, none of which condemned the Russian invasion. And on his return flight from China, Lula stopped plane in Moscow and he spoke to Xi's “best friend” Vladimir Putin on the phone.

Additional research by Lillian Yang and Jason Lu