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China-Brazil: A Strategic Partnership in an Evolving World Order

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Abstract

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a sharp intensification of the relations between China and Brazil. The two countries deepened their commercial links and, as a result, Brazil became China’s largest trading partner in Latin America. They have also further improved the quality of their political cooperation by setting up, for the first time, high-level bilateral institutions. Both countries have also been working together within multilateral institutions and mechanisms. The economic causes and impacts of this phenomenon have been widely discussed, but little however has been said about its specific political and strategic dimensions. In order to fill this gap, this article suggests an analysis that looks at the historical context of the relationship between China and Brazil, and sets up an enquiry into the most relevant domestic actors and at the strategic meanings behind their partnership. The goal here is twofold. Firstly, to analyse the role of domestic actors in the intensification of this partnership. Secondly, to discuss to what extent this intensification may be seen as evidence of any strategic interest of China and Brazil to put in place a more proactive, wilful and global foreign policy intended to shape globalisation and the world order.

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Notes

  1. Data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade of Brazil. URL: www.mdic.gov.br.

  2. Data from the International Trade Centre – Trade Map. URL: http://www.trademap.org/tm_light/Index.aspx

  3. Group, created in 1975, that gathers the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Russia.

  4. These debates opposed two blocks inside the CCP that had different views about the status of China in the international economy, and any external influence on China. On the one side, there were the liberals that advocated the further integration of China into the global economy as being the best way to increase economic modernisation [64]. On the other side was the “New left”, a movement essentially nativist that viewed any international relations with scepticism. The proponents of this movement defended that China should be more independent in relation to the international system [66]. The conclusions reached from Deng’s tour of Southern China in 1992 were essential to strengthen the liberal position [63]. The dismissal of Bo Xilai in 2012, the mayor of Chongqing who tried to revive Mao’s thoughts by implementing a “red culture” in his city, confirms the supremacy of the liberal view. This is still, to note, an on-going debate as the “New left” still retains influence.

  5. The concept of “seeking the truth from facts” was developed by Mao Zedong who argued that in order to build a better society it was necessary to combine theoretical knowledge with practical facts. In 1978, Deng recovered this concept with the goal of combining Marxism with the specific conditions of China at that moment: economic growth and ‘opening-up’ [14].

  6. A developing country, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is defined as a country that is not part of the top quartile of the Human Index Development [55]. Besides this definition, I draw on Bell to assume that developing countries are also ‘latecomers’, since they are still poor in a world in which there are already rich countries [5].

  7. Even though the “Three World Theory” was created by Mao Zedong, it was internationally presented by Deng Xiaoping at the UN General Assembly in 1974. He pointed out that “from the perspective of the changes that have taken place in international relations, the world today in fact has three sides or three worlds in existence which are mutually related as well as contradictory. The United States and the Soviet Union belong to the first world. Developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions belong to the third world. And the developed countries in between the two belong to the second world" [31].

  8. From 1984, Brazil started to export heavily to China. In 1984, the exports reached the value of US$ 453 millions and US$ 817 millions in 1985. In this year, China was, among all the developing countries, the second most important market for Brazil, receiving 3,2 % of the total of Brazilian exports. This percentage would be only equalled 16 years later in 2001 [6].

  9. Danielly Becard in her comprehensive study about China and Brazil’s relations also suggested that the convergence of national projects could have been seen as one of the reasons for the cooperation between the two countries [4].

  10. Data from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign trade website. URL: http://www.mdic.gov.br.

  11. Speech of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva in the opening session of the seminar “Brasil – China: Um Salto Necessário” – BNDES – Rio de Janeiro, 30 April 2003, (Translated from the original Portuguese by the author).

  12. The enlargement of the G-8 to the G-20 was officially put in place in 2009 in Pittsburgh, USA [13]. Besides the enlargement, this organism was also politically empowered, as the meetings of the G-20 started being attended not only by Ministers of Finances but also by the head of states [13].

  13. In 2010, the G-20 agreed on a doubling of IMF members’ quotas—financial stakes that determine voting power in the institution—in order to shift voting shares from industrialised countries towards developing countries, and as a consequence doubling the voting power of Brazil, China, India and Russia. For the reform to come into force it is necessary to have the acceptance of three-fifths of the members, and having 85 % of the total voting power. As of September 2012, 124 member states having 73 % of voting power has approved the reform. The USA was one of the countries that has not yet approved the reform and realistically without their consent it will be impossible for the reform to succeed since they hold 17 % of the voting power [22].

  14. Report of the United Nations Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, Buenos Aires, 30 August-12 September 1978 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.78.II.A.11 and corrigendum), chap. I.

  15. In a market economy prices of products and services are freely set based on supply and demand. In terms of international trade, the market economy status influences mostly dumping related issues. Dumping occurs when a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market (“normal value”) [59]. WTO allows importing countries to apply anti-dumping measures if preceeded by dumping investigations. These investigations basically compare the price of the imported product on the importing country’s market with the “normal value” of this product, which is the domestic price of the product in the accused dumping country. But if an exporting country has not yet been recognised as a market economy its home prices cannot be considered as “normal value” and therefore an ”analogue market” has to be chosen [59].

  16. The deputy Antônio Carlos Pannuzio of PSDB in 2005 submitted to the Congress the law-decree PDC 1630/2005, which asked for the repeal of the Memorandum by which Brazil recognises China as a market economy [40].

  17. In 2007, the relator of Pannuzio’s decree of law, Marcondes Gadelha, rejected it and re-stated that CAMEX was the body entitled the decision regarding the recognition of China as a “market economy”.

  18. This means that Brazil, when launching a dumping investigation against a particular Chinese product, does not consider the Chinese domestic price of this product as its “normal value”. Instead, Brazil looks for “analogue markets” to define the “normal value” of the product. However, in April 2012, for the first time, Brazil applied an anti-dumping measure against China (Camex’s resolution nr. 27, 25 April 2012 on Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) that was based not only in the assessment of the product’s “normal value” in an “analogue market” but also on in-loco investigations in China [9].

  19. According to article 49 of Brazil’s Constitution, the Congress is the only institution that can ratify agreements that carry damaging effects to the national patrimony. Apart from these, the government is entitled the right to sign agreements without the Congress ratification.

  20. These deputies are organised in the Brazil-China parliamentary group, created in 1993 by the PRC N.º: 158/93 [7].

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Acknowledgments

This article is part of a PhD project about cooperation between China and Brazil and of a research project titled “Assessing the ‘One country, two systems’: the role of Macau in the relations of China with the Portuguese Speaking Countries and the European Union”. Both research projects are funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal.

I wish to express my appreciation also for the comments made by the two reviewers on the draft of the article.

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Cardoso, D. China-Brazil: A Strategic Partnership in an Evolving World Order. East Asia 30, 35–51 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-012-9186-z

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