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The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Brazil. Over the past five decades, the bilateral relationship has always maintained stable development, regardless of the rapid changes in the international climate. Cooperation between China and Brazil not only promotes the development of their respective countries, but also contributes to the peace, stability and prosperity of the world, serving as a model for relations among the Global South countries as well as the developing powers.

Brazil was the first country in the world to establish a strategic partnership with China, the first to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China within Latin America, and the first to elevate its bilateral relations with China to the global level, namely, to

jointly building the China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet.

Thus, China-Brazilian relations have always been at the forefront not only of China's relations with developing countries, but also with all countries in the world.

Cultural, educational and academic cooperations are the key to sustain the China-Brazil Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. According to the data of Centro de Estudios Chinos y Latinoamericanos (CECLA), by the late November 2024, there will be more than 50 universities in China (including Macao) offering Portuguese teaching, and having established more than 70 institutes focusing on Latin America and Brazil; meanwhile, Brazil accounts for 12 out of 52 Confucius Institutes and more than 40 out of 116 China-oriented institutes across Latin America and the Caribbean. The numbers fully demonstrates that both China and Brazil are very eager to enhance their mutual understanding and that there is a vast space for co-producing knowledge of both countries.

In 2022, Academy of Contemporary China and the World Studies (ACCWS) and CECLA initiated the Survey of Chinese Studies in Brazil. The survey is to identify opportunities for academic exchanges and cooperation, and facilitate the building of Brazil-China Academic Community based on a full understanding of the characteristics and needs of Chinese studies in Brazil, thus contributing to the synergistic development of Brazilian Studies in China and Chinese Studies in Brazil.

Joint research will be the main path to build a Brazil-China Academic Community. The aforementioned survey turns out that joint research is not only the main way to carry out Chinese studies in Brazilian academia at present, but also the urgent call of the majority of Brazilian scholars focusing on China. This call has been responded to at the level of the two governments. The joint statement issued during President Lula's visit to China in April 2023 explicitly emphasized that academic cooperation, professors and students’ exchanges, as well as Chinese and Portuguese teachings, would continue to be promoted and strengthened.

Moreover, Chinese Minister of Education, Mr. Huai Jinpeng, visited Brazil from 25 to 27 November 2024, to implement the consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and President Lula in the field of education during Xi's state visit to Brazil in the same month. Mr. Huai and his Brazilian counterparts discussed the establishment of a ministerial-level dialogue on education and reached a broad consensus on cooperation in talent cultivation, scientific research language teaching, vocational education, digital education, etc. and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the mutual recognition of higher education qualifications and degrees, among others. These moves will give new impetus to China-Brazilian exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education and academia.

The survey also released that Brazilian institutes and scholars pay more attention to contemporary China issues, reflecting Brazil's high interest in China as an emerging power and in developing its relations with China. As Brazil and China elevate their relationship to a "jointly building the China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet" the demand for mutual understanding will become even stronger.

In view of this, CECLA and Observa China have taken the lead in promoting Brazilian studies in China and Chinese studies in Brazil and starting the community of Observa Brachina. We believe that the establishment of a Brazil-China Academic Community is not only an intellectual support for building China-Brazil’s another "Golden 50 Years", but also a practical action to tighten the cultural ties and jointly prepare for the coming China-Brazilian Year of Culture in 2026.

Photo by Element5 Digital, Pexels

This article is part of the project Sinóptica 提纲 Magazine. Learn more about this and other projects here.

The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the institutional position of Observa China 观中国 and are the sole responsibility of the author.