RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday, October 24th, that he would exempt the Chinese from visa requirements to enter Brazil for tourism or business.
At first, there will be no reciprocity. A similar measure has already been announced for citizens of the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada. The next country should be India.
According to Chancellor Ernesto Araújo, there is no deadline, because there should be strong demand. China has a population of approximately 1.39 billion people.
Today Chinese wishing to travel to the country need to go to one of the three Brazilian consulates in China, located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
The measure was first announced to China’s industry “heavyweights”.
Bolsonaro met in Beijing with 19 CEOs of major Chinese companies in sectors such as retail, aviation, infrastructure, agriculture and entertainment, including Wang MingQiang, CEO of Alibaba, Feng Yong Fang, CEO of CRCC Investment Group (infrastructure), and Yu Songho, CEO of the HeRun Group, one of the largest soy importers in China.
The meeting was organized by the president of FIESP (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), Paulo Skaf, who invited companies with which the organization maintains relations.
Bolsonaro also used the opportunity to point out to the Chinese that now, after the approval of the Welfare reform, Brazil is “solvent”, which will provide predictability to their businesses.
The meeting was very formal and lasted about half an hour. The Chinese businessmen presented their businesses and discussed their desire to invest in Brazil.
Bolsonaro’s openness to Chinese investment represents an important change in attitude in relation to the discourse adopted in the electoral campaign. At the time, the then-candidate even stated that “China was not buying in Brazil, but rather buying Brazil”.
The Brazilian far-right, led by Olavo de Carvalho – known as Bolsonaro’s “guru” – does not take a positive view of the rapprochement between Brazil and China.
In January of this year, a committee of deputies visited China to get to know the country’s security systems using facial recognition and was harshly criticized by de Carvalho, who dubbed the deputies as “rednecks” and “semi-illiterate”.
Despite resistance from his voters, Bolsonaro has adopted a pragmatic approach and conveyed to the Chinese the message that Brazil is open to business opportunities.
China is Brazil’s largest trading partner. From January to September, trade between the two countries totaled US$72.8 billion. In 2018, it was US$98.8 billion – a record.