Editor's Note:
During President Xi Jinping's state visit to Brazil, China and Brazil on Wednesday elevated their ties to a China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet and the two countries also decided to establish synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's development strategies. Global Times reporter Ma Tong (GT) conducted an inclusive interview with Marcos Cordeiro Pires (Pires), a professor at the Department of Political and Economic Sciences, São Paulo State University in Brazil to discuss the thriving economic and trade ties between China, Brazil, and the entire Latin American region.
GT: How do you view recent economic and trade achievements between China, Brazil, and Latin America?
Pires: China is contributing to local development and financial stability in the region. In recent decades, Latin America has been characterized by chronic balance of payments issues. However, with the intensification of trade with China, exchange rate and balance of payments crises have been overcome.
Specifically concerning Brazil, bilateral cooperation is the most advanced in the region. Bilateral trade has reached more than $158 billion in the first ten months of this year. Chinese investments in infrastructure are contributing to local productivity, particularly in the renewable energy sector. Chinese manufacturing companies, such as car manufacturers, opened factories in Brazil. China's supply provides the regional market and consumers with highly cost-effective product options.
GT: What are the potential benefits of China-Brazil cooperation in green energy and digital economy?
Pires: There is an excellent prospect for bilateral cooperation in terms of science, technology, and innovation. Brazil is one of the Latin American countries that invest the most in science and technology. We have a well-structured postgraduate system, and the country has expertise in aircraft production, petroleum engineering, biotechnology, precision agriculture, and more.
We already have a basic level to advance with China in these fields. There are several possibilities for cooperation, such as solar and wind energy generation, green hydrogen production, industrialization of critical minerals such as lithium and rare earths, local production of batteries for vehicles, etc.
Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent are also testing innovative solutions that can be applied to improve the quality of life of the urban population in Brazil. In this context, Brazil's New Growth Acceleration Plan, an ambitious nationwide infrastructure-building initiative, is poised to offer a substantial portfolio of projects where the partnership between Brazil and China can be realized.
GT: What opportunities do multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, G20, and APEC offer for bilateral ties and South-South cooperation?
Pires: The APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were essential spaces for discussing global and regional issues and an opportunity for heads of state to dialogue with each other openly.
One of the topics that the Brazilian presidency brought to the debate was the financial policies to combat social inequality. And another was the creation of effective and efficient mechanisms to combat the climate change.
Both issues face restrictions in some Western countries. In this case, ample space opens up for South-South cooperation to defend a new global governance and a more just, developed, and equitable world.
GT: How do China and Western countries differ in their economic cooperation with Latin America?
Pires: The Western policy towards Latin America is likely to be limited to two issues: immigration and the war on drugs. The solution presented by Washington focuses on repressing these two phenomena but does not address their economic and social causes.
Western companies seek business opportunities that are already mature, with the guarantee of immediate profits. There is almost no Western policy for creating infrastructure in Latin American countries to stimulate new economic ventures. Nor are there lines of credit for regional governments to build these basic logistics or energy generation infrastructures.
In contrast, the Chinese government has a different vision, as it is aware that the development of a peripheral country depends on the abundant supply of infrastructure to construct more diversified and more productive economies.
GT: How will deeper China-Brazil-Latin America trade ties impact the global economy?
Pires: The cooperation created in the last 20 years have made China an unavoidable actor for local development.
It is worth mentioning how the geopolitical interests of certain Western countries have tried to oppose Latin American countries' cooperation with China. The fact is that even the most conservative forces could not block the region's deepening ties with China due to the cooperation's win-win nature.
Despite the rising possibilities of these nations toughening policies against China, it cannot offer alternatives to the numerous assets China currently provides to Latin America regarding trade, investment, and technology transfer.
The synergies between China and Latin America are enormous, and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates numerous opportunities for cooperation. The BRI will benefit Brazil's New Growth Acceleration Plan, helping accelerate the regional reindustrialization progress, despite complex external pressures.
During President Xi Jinping's state visit to Brazil, China and Brazil on Wednesday elevated their ties to a China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet and the two countries also decided to establish synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative and Brazil's development strategies. Global Times reporter Ma Tong (GT) conducted an inclusive interview with Marcos Cordeiro Pires (Pires), a professor at the Department of Political and Economic Sciences, São Paulo State University in Brazil to discuss the thriving economic and trade ties between China, Brazil, and the entire Latin American region.
G20 logo displayed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Photo: Xinhua
GT: How do you view recent economic and trade achievements between China, Brazil, and Latin America?
Pires: China is contributing to local development and financial stability in the region. In recent decades, Latin America has been characterized by chronic balance of payments issues. However, with the intensification of trade with China, exchange rate and balance of payments crises have been overcome.
Specifically concerning Brazil, bilateral cooperation is the most advanced in the region. Bilateral trade has reached more than $158 billion in the first ten months of this year. Chinese investments in infrastructure are contributing to local productivity, particularly in the renewable energy sector. Chinese manufacturing companies, such as car manufacturers, opened factories in Brazil. China's supply provides the regional market and consumers with highly cost-effective product options.
GT: What are the potential benefits of China-Brazil cooperation in green energy and digital economy?
Pires: There is an excellent prospect for bilateral cooperation in terms of science, technology, and innovation. Brazil is one of the Latin American countries that invest the most in science and technology. We have a well-structured postgraduate system, and the country has expertise in aircraft production, petroleum engineering, biotechnology, precision agriculture, and more.
We already have a basic level to advance with China in these fields. There are several possibilities for cooperation, such as solar and wind energy generation, green hydrogen production, industrialization of critical minerals such as lithium and rare earths, local production of batteries for vehicles, etc.
Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent are also testing innovative solutions that can be applied to improve the quality of life of the urban population in Brazil. In this context, Brazil's New Growth Acceleration Plan, an ambitious nationwide infrastructure-building initiative, is poised to offer a substantial portfolio of projects where the partnership between Brazil and China can be realized.
GT: What opportunities do multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, G20, and APEC offer for bilateral ties and South-South cooperation?
Pires: The APEC meeting in Lima, Peru, and the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were essential spaces for discussing global and regional issues and an opportunity for heads of state to dialogue with each other openly.
One of the topics that the Brazilian presidency brought to the debate was the financial policies to combat social inequality. And another was the creation of effective and efficient mechanisms to combat the climate change.
Both issues face restrictions in some Western countries. In this case, ample space opens up for South-South cooperation to defend a new global governance and a more just, developed, and equitable world.
Marcos Cordeiro Pires Photo: Courtesy of Latino Observatory
GT: How do China and Western countries differ in their economic cooperation with Latin America?
Pires: The Western policy towards Latin America is likely to be limited to two issues: immigration and the war on drugs. The solution presented by Washington focuses on repressing these two phenomena but does not address their economic and social causes.
Western companies seek business opportunities that are already mature, with the guarantee of immediate profits. There is almost no Western policy for creating infrastructure in Latin American countries to stimulate new economic ventures. Nor are there lines of credit for regional governments to build these basic logistics or energy generation infrastructures.
In contrast, the Chinese government has a different vision, as it is aware that the development of a peripheral country depends on the abundant supply of infrastructure to construct more diversified and more productive economies.
GT: How will deeper China-Brazil-Latin America trade ties impact the global economy?
Pires: The cooperation created in the last 20 years have made China an unavoidable actor for local development.
It is worth mentioning how the geopolitical interests of certain Western countries have tried to oppose Latin American countries' cooperation with China. The fact is that even the most conservative forces could not block the region's deepening ties with China due to the cooperation's win-win nature.
Despite the rising possibilities of these nations toughening policies against China, it cannot offer alternatives to the numerous assets China currently provides to Latin America regarding trade, investment, and technology transfer.
The synergies between China and Latin America are enormous, and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates numerous opportunities for cooperation. The BRI will benefit Brazil's New Growth Acceleration Plan, helping accelerate the regional reindustrialization progress, despite complex external pressures.
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