Brazil: diplomatic scandal with China caused by Jair Bolsonaro’s son grows

Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president and head of the Brazilian Lower House External Relations Commission, triggered a diplomatic conflict threatening to spread, accusing Beijing, Brazil’s main trading partner, to use your 5G technology for the tasks of spying.

Tuesday the son of Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that “the Bolsonaro government has declared its support for the Alliance Clean Network launched by the government of Donald trump, creating a global alliance for safe 5G without spying from China “.

This alliance was born of “the repudiation of entities classified as aggressive against freedom Chinese Communist Party “added Eduardo Bolsonaro.

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His statement was answered almost immediately by the Chinese Embassy in Brasilia, who called his words “Infamous” in a press release also disseminated by social networks.

“Eduardo Bolsonaro and some prominent figures have made infamous statements that do not respect the facts (regarding) Sino-Brazilian cooperation,” said the Chinese embassy in Brasilia, which accused the president’s son of appealing to the “Rhetoric of the North American far right”.

“We urge these personalities to stop this rhetoric from the North American far right and to calumny on China, ”he said.

Today, the Brazilian government has classified as “offensive” and “disrespectful” the statement issued by the Chinese Embassy, ​​through a letter in which it contends that the “offensive and disrespectful tone and content of the aforementioned statement harms the image of China in front of Brazilian public opinion ”.

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The letter from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Chinese Embassy also states that “social media’s handling of issues of common interest is not constructive, creates unnecessary friction and does not promote good relations between Brazil and China“.

On the other hand, the letter deemed “inappropriate” for the embassy to comment on Brasilia’s relations with other countries, because “the Brazilian Embassy in Beijing he is silent on China’s relations with third countries. “

In its statement, the Chinese embassy warned that if statements such as Eduardo Bolsonaro’s continue, officials “will bear historical responsibility for disrupt normality of the China-Brazil association ”, underlined the embassy.

The dispute worries sectors of the government itself, the opposition and the economic chambers, given that China is Brazil’s main trading partner, and has prompted several MPs to ask the president’s son to be set apart of his position at the head of the Committee on External Relations.

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“This guy is hurting the country. Until when are we going to give wings to this madman ?, said the president of the Brazil-China Parliamentary Front, Deputy Fausto Pinato. “It is unacceptable that the president’s son behaves in this way and the president does nothing,” added MP Perpétua Almeida of the Communist Party.

Until August of this year, Brazilian exports to China totaled $ 47.3 billion, with a surplus of more than 25 billion for Brazil, far exceeding bilateral trade with United States.

However, President Jair Bolsonaro is a close ally of Donald Trump -He is one of the few leaders who has yet to recognize Joe Biden’s victory- and has aligned himself with most of his positions.

Brazil plans to call for competition in 2021 for the installation of the mobile telephone network with 5G technology, a subject on which Bolsonaro and his colleague spoke Xi Jinping last year in Brasilia.

President Bolsonaro sided with Donald Trump in Washington’s dispute with Beijing and the company Huawei, leader in 5G technology.