Major setback for US hegemony! Lula’s record: Strategic partnership & friend with China, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took 50.86% of the vote against Bolsonaro’s 49.14% is the next President of Brazil 美國霸權遭遇重大挫折！盧拉的戰績：與中國的戰略夥伴兼好友 50.86% 的得票率成為下一任巴西總統

During his time in office from 2003 to 2010, Lula embraced China as a strategic partner in his efforts to reform the international order.

Lula oversaw an intertwining of China and Brazil’s economies, with China becoming Brazil’s largest trading partner in 2009. Although Lula can’t be credited with the 2000s commodities boom that drove this dynamic, he did steer the relationship, creating the High Level Sino-Brazilian Commission in 2004 and meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hú Jǐntāo 胡锦涛 eight times while in office.

But what distinguishes Lula’s record is the politics of his China policy. At the start of his mandate in 2003, Lula made the strategic decision to draw closer to China, and he framed his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as the most important foreign visit of his presidency.

Lula was elected as a man of the people, and he applied his politics of social justice to international relations. He sought to “redefine Brazil’s place in the world” by creating a more muscular Brazilian foreign policy and by attempting to reform what he saw as an unjust international order. By forging deeper connections with other countries in the Global South, Lula hoped to “construct a new world geography” that gave more room to voices from developing countries. This sentiment fueled the creation of the BRICS grouping in 2006, combining the major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and later South Africa.

“Lula had this vision that it was in Brazil’s interests to build a more multipolar world with a connection to everyone, but mainly China,” says Nogueira, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “It was strategic: they were trying to build policy space in relation to the United States.” China, as the world’s largest developing country, was key to Lula’s mission of reform. Lula saw Brazil and China on a semi-equal footing, as “great countries” that could together “change unfair rules” and cooperate “within an “international system marked by inequality.”

For many China analysts, having Lula back means having a constructive, active foreign policy again, and that can only be good for ties with China. That perception is underlined by Lula’s record as an “old friend” (Chinese) of the Chinese people.

Economic realities might not change much under Lula, but the Workers’ Party is sure to strengthen the political dimension of the relationship, with a focus on BRICS and South-South cooperation. China analysts in Brazil are hoping that under a more proactive China policy, ties will expand into cultural and scientific domains.

There are also hopes that more pro-China signals from the administration will help move the dial on sticking points in the economic relationship, such as Chinese barriers to higher-value Brazilian exports. Although economic ties have grown under Bolsonaro, the hope is that with greater political will, the China-Brazil relationship could mean even more. “If we have a competent foreign policy, have more of a strategic eye, we can tie up geopolitics with economic deals — this is the sort of thing I could expect from a Workers’ Party government,” Nogueira says.