Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was scheduled to visit his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the end of March. Beijing would have been Lula’s fourth international destination in less than 100 days in office.
Lula had to cancel his trip, which was set to include 200 business people, after catching pneumonia but it is now expected to take place in April or May. His administration had hoped the China visit would alleviate political pressure at home.
Since returning to the presidency (his previous term was 2003-2010), Lula has already been to visit partners in the South American trade bloc Mercosur, Argentina and Uruguay, and recently flew to Washington DC for conversations with US president Joe Biden and members of the Democratic party over infrastructure investments, trade and climate change.
