How Prioritized Is the Strategic Partnership between Brazil and China?

This chapter aims at conducting a broad analysis of Brazil-China relations in order to reveal the extent to which the strategic partnership between Brazil and China is prioritized. This question is of great importance within the thematics of this book as it deals with the issue of the character of the BRICS coalition, as well as with the issue of intra-BRICS cohesion. Many observers and analysts of the dynamics of global politics find that the rise of China and the formation of the BRICS coalition on the international political scene is a significant novelty in the international system, and relations between China and Brazil are of great importance to intra-BRICS relations and BRICS as a group. Maria Regina Soares de Lima and Ricardo Castelán (2013) suggest that from a realist perspective, the world “is witnessing a very interesting moment of imbalance between order and power” in which emerging powers are gaining in relevance. Will China and Brazil’s strategic partnership influence the nature of this imbalance?