China and Brazil “should not be satisfied with the current status of cooperation”, Beijing’s ambassador to Brasilia told the Post in an interview on Monday, describing membership in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a “fundamental measure” to boost synergies between the two countries.
Attending a China-Brazil Business Council event in Sao Paulo days before the 50th anniversary of the countries’ ties, Zhu Qingqiao made his remarks as Brasilia ponders what it could gain by joining Beijing’s flagship infrastructure and trade project.
Qingqiao’s comments, delivered to business leaders and government officials, echoed sentiments shared in July by Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, whose words marked the first time Brasilia openly discussed the possibility of joining the scheme.
Zhu told the Post that if Brazil were to join the BRI it would be a “demonstration of stability” in the two countries’ “long-term cooperative relationship”.
Membership in the global framework could also provide mutual benefit and “facilitate the identification of synergies between Brazilian demand and China’s interests in the most strategic sectors”, the ambassador said.
“We believe that the initiative is highly consistent with the Lula government’s development strategy, such as [its] re-industrialisation plans, South American integration routes and growth-acceleration project,” he added.
In South America, only Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay have yet to join the strategic initiative.
Eduardo Saboia, secretary for Asia and the Pacific in Brazil’s foreign affairs ministry, also spoke at the event, highlighting the significant trade volume between the two countries, which in 2023 yielded a record surplus for Brazil of US$51.1 billion.
Yet Saboia said “efforts must be made” to diversify the variety of exported products, now mostly comprising soybeans and minerals.
The senior official called for Chinese investment “in strategic chains, promoting Brazilian participation in areas with greater added value and exploring complementarities in areas of interest to Brazil”.
As for the status of BRI negotiations, Zhu declined to elaborate on how they were proceeding but hinted that benefits could include funding for work that would help Brazil connect to the Pacific Ocean, particularly the deep water port in Chancay, Peru.
The port was built with Chinese loans and is now scheduled to open in November.
“I think Chinese companies are very interested in getting involved in some way” in connecting Brazil with Chancay, the ambassador explained, saying “we will have to wait and see” if the arrangement could form part of a BRI accession agreement.
As discussions between Beijing and Brazil play out, China’s rising influence in Brazil and Latin America more broadly has sparked considerable unease in Washington.
US Southern Command chief Laura Richardson, visiting Rio de Janeiro for joint military exercises in May, told a local newspaper that “the democracies of Brazil and the United States share a 200-year history, while the partnership with China is only 50 years old”.
“As democracies, we respect each other. We respect each other’s sovereignty,” the US general said. “We respect each other’s people, the democracies, which does not happen with a communist country because they do not respect the rights of their own people.”
Addressing the possibility that Brazil could join the BRI, Richardson warned that Brasilia would have to pay attention to the conditions “imposed” by Beijing.
“What we have learned is that the Belt and Road Initiative looks very good on the surface, but there is a lot of fine print,” she added. “You have to read the fine print to see all the conditions and how sovereignty is taken away over time if loans are not repaid and things like that.”
In response, the Chinese embassy accused Richardson of “adopting a typical Cold-War mentality” and heeding “hegemonic logic”. It said the BRI “advocates comprehensive consultations, joint contributions and shared benefits rather than seeking supremacy”.
“In Latin America, the US has used ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ as a pretext to attack, sanction and interfere in countries in the region,” the embassy’s statement added.
Referring to America’s dim view of the BRI, Zhu told the Post that forcing countries to choose between Beijing and Washington was “interference in sovereign nations” and that Chinese diplomacy expected resistance to such “irrational measures”.
“I understand the history of Latin American countries very well,” he said. “They have suffered a lot. Relations with the United States may be close today, but on the other hand they were the result of constant interventions.”
