Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro wears a face mask during a press conference on the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil on Friday. Photo: AFP

The diplomatic spat between China and Brazil, triggered by insulting comments made by Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian federal lawmaker and the son of President Jair Bolsonaro, has gradually waned as Brazilian politicians criticized the junior   Bolsonaro and apologized for his remarks.

Eduardo Bolsonaro sparked a diplomatic crisis on Wednesday by groundlessly blaming the Chinese "dictatorship" for the spread of the coronavirus, following US President Donald Trump's ill-judged "Chinese virus" tweet.

According to members of Brazilian press, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was dissatisfied over his son's unfriendly remarks on China and has reprimanded the younger Bolsonaro over the matter.

Brazilian Senate President Davi Alcolumbre and President of the country's Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia have also issued apologies to the Chinese government and people on Twitter on Thursday, criticizing the inappropriate remarks that Eduardo Bolsonaro made, which run contrary to the significance of the China-Brazil strategic partnership. 

Alcolumbre, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, said, "Isolated reactions don't represent the nation's sentiment," in the name of the Brazilian parliament on Twitter. 

"On behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, I apologize to China and [Chinese] Ambassador Yang Wanming for the thoughtless words of Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro," tweeted Maia. "I hope that soon we can come out of the current crisis even stronger," he said.

A number of Brazilian political elites, including Vice President Hamilton Mourao, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, leaders of major Brazilian parties, well-known scholars and commentators, Brizilian think tanks as well as a large number of netizens have condemned Eduardo Bolsonaro's ridiculous statement in various ways, emphasizing that China's measures to combat the epidemic have turned out to be effective, and serve as a model for both Brazil and the international community to learn from. 

Eduardo Bolsonaro's Tweet received a harsh response from Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Yang Wanming, who urged the junior Bolsonaro to withdraw the "malicious insult" immediately and apologize to the Chinese people. 

The war of words between the two countries subsided after the apologies, which accords with the interests of both sides, said observers.

The Bolsonaro administration is deemed pro-US and tends to follow the US line in finding fault with China over the so-called human rights issues, Zhang Jiazhe, a professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times. "However, Chinese market is irreplaceable in terms of Brazil's iron ore and soybean exports." 

Brazil, currently haunted by the rapid spread of novel coronavirus, has 1,128 confirmed cases with 18 deaths as of 7 pm Saturday. It is in need of China's experience and assistance in the battle against the pandemic. 

Despite articulating that "it is immoral and irresponsible to smear the efforts of the Chinese government and people," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang noted on Friday that China has been conducting medical cooperation and sharing experience in diagnosis and treatment with countries including Brazil.