The relationship between China and Brazil is very complex to be analyzed in just a few hundred words and the maximum that can be done in this article is to provide some indication of how are relations between the two countries and how they might be someday.

However, it is impossible to make an analysis of what happens today without going back in time. To be more specific, in the 60s, a period when the world was divided by the Cold War and in which any country that tried to be “independent” (trying to get rid of the American or Soviet influence) pay a dear price for trying to do it.

And that is what happened with Brazil. The United States would never desist from losing its hegemony in this region and helped out the golpists around here.

In 1961, when President Jânio Quadros resigned his position (the resignation was in fact an attempted coup unsuccessful) his deputy should have taken, but it was not what happened at first. Many sectors of Brazilian society feared “Jango” because he believed it was communist and therefore tried to make a coup d’etat.

Coincidentally or not, Jango was in China when that happened, trying to restore diplomatic contacts. Probably this attempt at rapprochement with China and the Soviet Union was what really worried the Americans.

Of course, Brazil wouldn’t become a communist (even today many stupid people confuse Socialism with Communism), but the fact is that having extensive trade relations with those countries would be something quite lucrative, especially for Brazil, which at the time was not industrialized as it is today. Hinder the development of Brazil means the maintenance of American hegemony in Latin America.

And the United States achieved what they wanted in 1964, when Jango was finally deposed and the military began a regime of terror which last until 1985. Curiously in 1972 Nixon did the same thing as Jango wanted to Brazil in 1961, but in 1974 Brazil would establish relations with China and despite the ups and downs relations are good.

Brazil, besides being a major supplier of commodities and auto parts, also develops projects of infrastructure in that country (such as the construction of large hydroelectric). On the other hand, Brazil imports “popular” products, electronic equipment and machinery. Currently China is the third largest trading partner of Brazil (losing only to Argentina and the United States).

But the Brazil-China relationship is more complex than the underlying business. Many Chinese products compete directly with Brazilian products in Brazil: footwear, fabrics, certain electronic equipment, toys (among many others). Due to the low prices of Chinese goods, some sectors charge of the Brazilian government protectionist measures. Moreover, the Chinese government protectionist measures preventing the entry of Brazilian products with higher added value, such as vegetable oils and soybean meal.

So, while Brazil bars Chinese products, China does the same with Brazilian products. With the world economic crisis, the tendency is that both Brazil and China has become more protectionists. But that’s not all.

Brazil and China are competing globally for new markets and new partners. Many African countries are being disputed by Brazil and China, with both making promises of investments and other specific things.

Chinese celebration in Sao Paulo

But the most curious is the dispute between Brazil and China by ... Cuba! Both countries are competing to extract oil from the island of Castro and so far Brazil is winning that battle (Petrobras recently signed an agreement with Cuba to extract offshore oil - it is estimated that Cuba holds reserves of 20 billion barrels of oil and over one million cubic feet of natural gas).

This dispute between Brazil and China is only happening because the United States persist in maintaining a meaningless economic embargo against Cuba. Who wins? Two of the BRIC countries, which many already consider a threat to the “West” (as if Brazil would not be exactly in the “west”!).

Finally, the Brazil-China relationship is currently marked by a high degree of economic complementation, but also by trade disputes and competitiveness. If this relationship is healthy, I could not tell, but, for now, these two countries respect each other. And most important, they need each other.