Developments around Lula’s Jan.1 inauguration as President of Brazil are strengthening ties with China, much as they did with Russia, as evidenced in Lula’s meeting with that country’s envoy, Federation Council Speaker Sen. Valentina Matviyenko. First, China’s President Xi Jinping sent a strong congratulatory message to Lula, in which he stated, according to Foreign Ministry, that “the two countries are comprehensive strategic partners sharing extensive common interests and shouldering common development responsibilities.… Xi also said he attaches great importance to the development of the China-Brazil comprehensive strategic partnership, and is willing to work with Lula to continue to firmly support each other in taking a development path in line with their own national conditions.…” (https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/202301/t20230103_11000170.html )
Secondly, Xi Jinping sent as his personal representative to the inauguration Vice President Wang Qishan. As China Daily put it in a Jan. 3 editorial headlined “Stronger China-Brazil Relations Have Rich Connotations, Broad Prospects,” “The presence of Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan, as a special representative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the inauguration ceremony of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia on Sunday speaks volumes about the great significance China attaches to relations with Brazil. In the congratulatory message he sent, President Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand and upgrade its cooperation with Brazil. To which the Brazilian leader, a long-term advocate of developing Sino-Brazilian relations, tweeted: `China is our biggest trading partner and we can further expand relations between our countries.’”
