The Chinese Foreign Ministry applauded convicted felon Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday for becoming president of Brazil again and expressed hope that Beijing’s influence in South America’s largest economy would grow tremendously during his third term in power.
The Global Times, a Chinese government propaganda newspaper, claimed in its report on Lula’s inauguration this week that the socialist president would visit China in the first three months of 2023, a move underlining the importance Lula is expected to give China in his foreign policy.
Lula was inaugurated during a formal ceremony on Sunday, as per Brazilian law, after defeating conservative incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the nation’s presidential elections in October. Bolsonaro broke Brazilian tradition by not attending the inauguration ceremony; he reportedly flew to Florida shortly before his term ended this weekend.
Lula first served as president from 2003 to 2011, enacting a hardline socialist agenda of extreme wealth redistribution and fostering ties with the world’s most violent rogue regimes, particularly Russia, Iran, and China. Lula ushered Brazil into the security and economic coalition now known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and catapulted China into a position of trade dominance over his country. Lula was part of the first-ever BRIC summit, prior to South Africa joining the group – and prior to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping assuming power.
China’s enthusiasm for the return of Lula is particularly notable given Bolsonaro’s friendly ties to the communist regime. During his successful 2018 presidential campaign, Bolsonaro flagged Chinese investment and political influence in Brazil as a major problem and vowed to become the world’s preeminent anti-communist world leader. As president, however, Bolsonaro visited Beijing in late 2019 and signed a host of trade deals, gifted genocidal communist dictator Xi Jinping a soccer jersey, and proclaimed China to be a “capitalist country.” The Bolsonaro administration was considering joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure debt trap China uses to erode the sovereignty of poor countries, last year.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives to the Planalto Palace after swearing as new president in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
The Chinese government nonetheless embraced Lula’s return with enthusiasm this week.
“We are convinced that under the strategic guidance of President Xi and President Lula, the China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership will achieve new growth, make new progress, contribute to regional and world peace and stability and advance common prosperity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters on Tuesday.
Mao noted that Xi personally sent a letter to Lula congratulating him on becoming president again and declaring ties between their respective nations “a model of relations between major developing countries with rich connotations and broad prospects.” The letter, according to Chinese media, expressed hope that the two could “lead and push the partnership to a higher level from a strategic and long-term perspective, so as to better benefit the two countries and their people.”
The Global Times boasted on Monday that Lula invited a “high-level Chinese delegation” to participate in his inauguration on Sunday, led by Vice President Wang Qishan. The state newspaper repeatedly described Lula as an “old friend” Beijing was happy to see return to power – and one it believed could organize the rest of Latin America’s left into an anti-American bloc on the same hemisphere.
“The veteran left-wing politician’s presidency in Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, will lead a growing left-wing tide in Latin America toward a new peak,” the Global Times predicted, “marking a fundamental change in the political landscape across the continent, observers believe.”
The vast majority of Latin American states are currently run by leftist governments. Unlike the glowing portrait of these governments in the Global Times, however, many of these governments are falling apart under accusations of coups or corruption, and are plagued by feuds with each other. In Peru, former communist President Pedro Castillo was arrested last month for trying to dissolve Congress before he could be impeached, leaving his vice president, technically a leftist, in charge, but facing violent leftist riots supporting her former boss. In Argentina, longtime Lula friend and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in December, essentially ending her 2023 presidential bid. In neighboring Chile, leftist President Gabriel Boric has refused to cooperate with, and regularly condemns, the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship – also a longtime Lula- (and Kirchner-) allied regime.
Outside of Lula’s potential to pivot the entire continent towards China, the Global Times expected Lula to build “mutual political trust, comprehensive cooperation and overall relations between the two countries.”
The Times, citing Lula’s top diplomat, also claimed the Brazilian leader would visit China in the first three months of 2023. Lula is also expected to visit America and make the much shorter trip to Argentina in that time frame. Leftist Argentine President Alberto Fernández attended Lula’s inauguration on Sunday.
Lula is inheriting a robust Brazilian economy largely as a result of the Bolsonaro policies that he has promised to undo. Brazil posted a record trade surplus – $62.3 billion – on Monday for all of 2022, significantly higher than the Bolsonaro administration’s prediction of $55.4 billion. That surplus was fueled by record-high exports, made possible by Bolsonaro expanding Brazil’s agricultural sector and taking advantage of shortages caused in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bolsonaro also steadfastly refused to support economic lockdowns and civil liberties restrictions during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, sparing much of the country from the financial devastation seen elsewhere.
Lula is entering the presidency as a convicted felon. Following the end of his second presidential term, Lula was arrested, tried, and convicted on multiple appeals of taking bribes while president and using them to buy a luxury property. He was ultimately sentenced to about 25 years in prison but allowed to run for president after the country’s top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), overturned his conviction on procedural grounds, without presenting any evidence exonerating him.