Brazil’s Lula Says His Country Must Become an Economic Powerhouse Rather Than Depend on China or the United States

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has declared that his country should aim to match or surpass China and the United States economically, rejecting dependence on either power as he outlined his ambitions for Brazil’s development over the next four years.

“We don’t want to remain dependent on China or the United States. We want to be equal to them or better than them. Never worse,” Lula said during a meeting of Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council in Brasília on Friday, November 6.

“We have more than enough people to make this happen. We want to transform this country into an economic powerhouse.”

The remarks came less than two weeks after Lula secured another presidential term in the October 25 election. He has pledged to move Brazil beyond its developing-country status and accelerate economic progress during his next four years in office.

Lula also questioned whether China’s economic achievements could serve as a direct benchmark for Brazil, arguing that the two countries operate under fundamentally different political systems.

“Which country has the conditions and the capacity to do what we are doing?” he asked, before excluding China from the comparison because of its much larger size.

“China doesn’t have opposition newspapers, it doesn’t have opposition trade unions, it doesn’t have opposition political parties,” Lula said. “It’s different. It’s not the same assessment. We have to compare ourselves with our equals.”

The president argued that Brazil’s democratic institutions and political opposition make its development challenges different from those faced by Beijing, where the Communist Party maintains control over the political system.

Turning to domestic politics, Lula criticized the economic record of former President Jair Bolsonaro, contrasting it with the performance of his own administration.

“Bolsonaro didn’t achieve growth. We came back, and the economy started growing,” he said.

Brazil’s economy did expand during Bolsonaro’s presidency, including growth of 4.8% in 2021 and 3% in 2022, according to official figures. Lula’s comparison was therefore a political assessment rather than a literal description of Brazil’s economic record.

At Friday’s meeting, Lula also pledged to personally monitor the implementation of government decisions and demand clear delivery deadlines, saying Brazil could not afford further delays.