THE BEGINNING OF THE CBERS PROGRAM

The path to Sino-Brazilian space cooperation

Abstract

Within the end of the Cold War context, Brazil and China signed a bilateral agreement for the construction of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS), a remote sensing satellite that would serve both countries. In the midst of great cultural differences and distant geographical positions, the States saw in the space project an opportunity to strengthen strategic diplomatic relations, foster their industrial park and enable the monitoring of their vast territorial extension using their own resources. Since the construction of satellites requires sophisticated methods and equipment, their development in partnership provides complementarity between the capabilities of each country and valuable scientific learning. Furthermore, the result of the space partnership made possible a mature approach between China and Brazil, to the detriment of the perspective of a bipolar world. In view of the challenges inherent to such unprecedented cooperation, the following proposal aims to present a look in light of the liberal theory of international relations about  the factors that culminated in the creation of the CBERS program and the mishaps encountered during its development.