Matthew Johnson
President Xi Jinping walks beside President Lula at a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Source: Xinhua)
Executive Summary:
Brazil, a strategic partner to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is taking a co-leading role in shaping a regional economic order decoupled from U.S.-centric trade and financial norms.
The most consequential outcome of President Lula’s recent visit to Beijing was the signing of a comprehensive financial integration package encompassing settlement, currency swap lines, market access, and shared digital infrastructure design.
Lula was in town for the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-CELAC Forum along with other leaders and ministers from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). In his speech at the forum, President Xi Jinping signaled a drive to expand the PRC’s presence in Latin America through coordinated infrastructure investment, economic integration, and political alignment.
New security cooperation agreements signed with Brazil may intersect with U.S. regional drug enforcement efforts and suggest a future in which Beijing could gain procedural influence over how security and surveillance are administered in partner states.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is moving rapidly to build parallel economic and financial systems with Global South partners. Nowhere is this more evident than in Latin America. The Fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-CELAC Forum, held in May between the PRC and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), saw PRC officials advance a layered agenda of economic integration, infrastructure development, and local currency settlement—positioning the region as both a commercial outlet and a geopolitical hedge. CELAC is a 33-member regional bloc that explicitly excludes the United States and Canada.
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