After Bolsonaro, Lula aims to show China that Brazil is back to normal'

One of them wants the world to know his country is battling its way back to its former glory after three years of zero-Covid lockdowns and a long and humiliating history of foreign exploitation.

- Tom Phillips

The other wants to signal his country is bouncing back from four chaotic years under a far-right populist who took a sledgehammer to its place in the world.

The two revival-seeking politicians China's leader, Xi Jinping, and the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva - will meet in Beijing next week during a high-profile tour that is part of Lula's efforts to repair his country's overseas reputation after Jair Bolsonaro's era of antagonism and isolation.

Lula's 26-31 March visit - on which he will take scores of the most powerful figures in Brazilian politics, industry and agribusiness - comes hot on the heels of trips to the US and Argentina, Brazil's most important trade partners after China.

The political scientist Cláudio Couto said those trips were designed to emphasise how sensible, stable government had returned to South America's biggest economy after four topsy-turvy years during which Bolsonaro insulted and alienated allies from Paris to Beijing.

"The top message is that Brazil is back to normal," Couto said, recalling the repeated anti-China attacks from Bolsonaro and his allies.