The “Trump Effect” on China's role in the global order

Challenges and opprtunities to Brazil

Abstract

The Trump administration represents a significant shift on the United States’ domestic and foreign policies, refusing to maintain the US as the leading country in promoting and implementing liberal values worldwide. Given Trump’s isolationism and despite those who sees Beijing as an opponent of liberal value, China is the main candidate to succeed the US as the cornerstone of the current world order, mainly because it benefits the most from it. Even though China is prone to global leadership, it requires regional partners to boost its claim for leadership, which it can find in Latin America, and more specifically, in Brazil. China and Brazil already consolidated a strategic partnership in the 90s and its relations were recently raised to the level of ‘Global Strategic Partnership’ with important outcomes, as the BRICS initiative displays. Therefore, this paper intends to assess the main challenges and opportunities posed to Brazil, given the “Trump Effect” on China’s international role. The conclusion identifies the need to set the course of Brazil’s foreign policy back on the track of global aspirations and to develop stronger bilateral political ties between Brazil and China in order to consolidate the partnership as a pillar of the liberal global order.