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Brazil Inks Deal to Use Yuan, Not Dollar, in Trade with China

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The governments of Brazil, now under the leadership of radical leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and communist China announced an agreement on Wednesday to no longer use the U.S. dollar to conduct trade, instead relying on the Chinese yuan and Brazilian real.

China is Brazil’s largest trade partner, meaning the deal will significant decrease Brazil’s use of the dollar generally. The deal is one of several between the two countries planned to be announced this week, when Lula was expected to travel to Beijing for meetings with dictator Xi Jinping. Lula, 77, was forced to cancel his travels after being diagnosed with influenza-induced pneumonia this week.

The move follows aggressive efforts in the past five years by China to limit the influence of the U.S. dollar and slowly convince the world to use commerce using the yuan. Beijing has long counted on Brazil as an ally and friend – and fellow member of the BRICS economic and political coalition, whose members have pushed for the eradication of the dollar in global trade – even through the tepid relations with conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro. Towards the end of his term last year, Bolsonaro administration officials stated they had a “great interest” joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global debt trap plan to erode poorer nations’ sovereignties through predatory loans meant for infrastructure development.

According to the Brazilian news outlet G1, China and Brazil will create a “clearing house” mechanism with the power of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to rapidly exchange reals into yuan and vice versa, eliminating the need for the dollar. Currently, any trade between Chinese and Brazilian businesses, including loans and purchases, requires each side to convert their national currency into dollars to send to the other side. G1 noted, citing Lula administration officials, that China has already established similar “clearing houses” in Chile and Argentina, countries that have officially joined the Belt and Road Initiative.

“The expectation is that this will reduce costs … promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex Brasil) said in a statement announcing the agreement on Wednesday. Apex Brasil is part of the nation’s Foreign Ministry.

The deal will likely impact billions of dollars in trade. Brazil and China documented upwards of $150 billion in trade volume throughout 2022, most of it Chinese exports to Brazil. Brazil is a major source of key agricultural products, notably soy beans, to China; Brazil’s exports made up nearly $90 billion worth of trade with China last year. China has been Brazil’s largest trade partner for 13 years, since Lula’s last stint in office, which ended in 2011.

RELATED: Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke EXPOSES Successor Deb Haaland’s Ignorance on China Threat

House Appropriations Committee

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the agreement on Thursday, refraining from fully celebrating it but expressing hope that it would facilitate increased trade with Brazil.

“Earlier this year, China and Brazil signed a memorandum of cooperation to establish renminbi (RMB) [yuan] clearing arrangements in Brazil,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “These arrangements will help enterprises and financial institutions in both countries conduct cross-border transactions using the RMB. They will also further facilitate bilateral trade and investment.”

Lula has been one of Latin America’s most vocal proponents of moving away from using the dollar as a common trade currency. Throughout his candidacy for president last year, the former president and inmate promoted the idea of creating a Euro-style common currency for South America, titled the sur, alongside socialist Argentina.

“We are going to restore our relationship with Latin America. God willing, we will create a Latin American currency,” Lula said in an interview in May. “We don’t have to depend on the dollar.”

In January, following Lula’s inauguration, the specter of the sur arose in local media again, as Argentine President Alberto Fernández sought the support of the largest economy on the continent to keep the woefully performing Argentine peso afloat.

“There will be a decision to start studying the parameters needed for a common currency, which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks,” Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa said to the Financial Times in January. “It would be a study of mechanisms for trade integration. … I don’t want to create any false expectations, it’s the first step on a long road which Latin America must travel.”

The BRICS coalition – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – has also openly sought ways to distance the world economy from the American dollar. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin increased the pressure of BRICS to seek ways to conduct trade outside of the dollar, allowing Russia to stay afloat amid Western sanctions on its economy.

“The Russian president stated earlier that together with other BRICS nations, Moscow was working on alternative mechanisms of payment. Putin emphasized that Russia’s financial messaging system was open for banks from other BRICS countries to join,” the Russian news agency Tass reported in June. “According to Putin, efforts are underway to create an international reserve currency based on the basket of BRICS currencies and Russia’s Mir payment system is expanding its global presence.”

Chinese officials noted that month that the Russian government, which has greatly increased its oil exports to China in the past year, was increasingly urging Beijing to find a way out of using the dollar to enact trade, offering to use the yuan instead.

BRICS will likely require more and stronger member nations to solidify its stance as an alternative economic mechanism to the current dollar-led financial order. To that end, BRICS nation leaders have spent much of the past year discussing expansion. Argentina, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are among the top country names repeatedly surfacing as having an interest in joining BRICS and the economic potential to bring enough to the table to clear the bar for entry.

Disgraced former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s protege, was chosen to lead BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB), its alternative institution to global finance agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), last week.

“Mrs. Dilma Vana Rousseff, a renowned stateswoman and economist devoted to global development over the years, enjoys high prestige and significant influence in the world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday. “China, as the host country, welcomes the assumption of office by Mrs. Rousseff. We will continue to deepen all-round cooperation with the NDB and fully support her work.”

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Cuba: Sham ‘Elections’ Make 91-Year-Old Raul Castro, Elian Gonzalez Lawmakers

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The Cuban Communist Party held “elections” on Sunday in which 470 hand-picked candidates vied for 470 seats in the National People’s Power Assembly, the national lawmaking body — meaning every candidate was guaranteed a seat.

No opposition candidates appeared on the ballot and several regional “elections” boasted some of the country’s most well-known and powerful political figures. Among those gifted lawmaking seats on Sunday were former dictator Raúl Castro, 91, and Elián González, a communist celebrity best known in the United States as a child refugee deported at gunpoint by leftist President Bill Clinton in 2000.

The official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, quietly announced Castro’s plans to return to public office in February with little explanation as to why. Castro, for decades the closest ally of his brother and fellow dictator Fidel Castro, officially retired from in 2021 from the presidency and the far more powerful position of chairman of the Communist Party, presumably heralding in a new era of totalitarian rule under current figurehead President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Díaz-Canel’s time at the nominal helm of the country has been so disastrous for the Party – featuring the return of widespread food shortages, nationwide power blackouts, and historic protests – that Castro announced this year he would seek political office again.

González became internationally known in 2000 after arriving by sea in Florida. His mother, Elizabeth Brotons Rodríguez, drowned attempting to get her son out of the communist country and González was rescued at sea. Clinton nonetheless deported him back to his father, sending a highly-armed law enforcement team to storm the home of his American relatives in Florida and send him back to Cuba. The Communist Party turned González into a loyalist celebrity, appearing on state television to encourage the worship of the Castro family.

Cuban state media prominently featured reports of Raúl Castro visiting a voting center to cast his ballot for the regime’s hand-picked choices, but downplayed the fact that Castro himself was running for office.

“The revolutionary leader was nominated as [a] parliamentary candidate from the 2ns Front municipality, in eastern Santiago de Cuba province,” the state-run Prensa Latina noted.

In February, after the regime announced Castro’s candidacy – and that of 90-year-old Cuban Revolution veteran Ramiro Valdés – Cuban politics experts told Breitbart News that his return was a de facto vote of no confidence for the younger generation of communist leaders.

“Without the presence of the surviving Castro brother, co-founder of the regime, everything becomes uncertain,” Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, the co-founder of the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio), told Breitbart News. “Raúl Castro must remain in charge because there is never anyone who can fully replace him.”

González, meanwhile, represents a younger generation beyond Díaz-Canel’s that could potentially secure the longevity of the regime.

“The fact that I will share in a part of the historic direction fills me with pride,” González said in February, “knowing that Raúl will be there doubles my joy because we will have experience and the example at our side still and I know I will be in that hall with our army general.”

Castro and González will go on to “elect” the president of the country, expected to be Díaz-Canel, with no popular input outside of the sham elections this weekend.

As the elections were entirely non-competitive – “nobody chose anything … the Party elects itself,” as dissident Cuban activist Carolina Barrero told the Argentine news outlet Infobae – international observers have focused on assessing voter turnout to determine how disillusioned Cubans have become with their 64-year-old regime. According to the Cuban government, as of Monday, 75.92 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, up from 70.34 percent tallied as of 5:00 p.m. local time on Sunday. While international outlets such as Reuters described the number as “stronger than expected,” local independent reports noted that, given tremendous government pressure and historical participation rates, government reports suggest low voter engagement.

The independent Cuban outlet 14 y Medio noted that, between 1976 and 2013, Cuban legislative “elections” maintained 90-percent participation rates. Most recently, in 2018, participation dropped to 85.65 percent, still about ten points higher than the official government participation rate this weekend.

14 y Medio also questioned, however, the authenticity of the official turnout statistics. The regime abruptly extended election times by two hours at the end of Sunday night, a sign that turnout may have needed a boost.

“The 14 y Medio team could confirm in various electoral centers in Havana that not many people approached to drop off their votes,” the outlet noted. “Collaborators of this outlet confirm the low turnout in various provinces and is also suggested by the coverage in official media, which has not shown lines of voters in its images.”

Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, has been down since voting stations closed on Sunday, the outlet noted. Breitbart News could not access the website at press time.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Far-left congressman says banning TikTok is ‘racist towards China,’ claims GOP is ‘creating a Red Scare’

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Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) claimed Wednesday that supporting bans on TikTok is “racist.”

Speaking outside the Capitol alongside TikTok creators, Bowman rejected the claim that TikTok poses a national security risk, establishing himself as one of the few politicians willing to defend the application. Many lawmakers believe TikTok is spyware for the Chinese Communist Party.

“Why the hysteria and panic and the targeting of TikTok? As we know, Republicans in particular have been sounding the alarm, creating a Red Scare around China,” Bowman said.

Without evidence, Bowman claimed that TikTok poses the “same threat” to Americans as American-owned social media platforms.

“So, let’s not marginalize and target TikTok,” Bowman said. “Let’s not have a dishonest conversation. Let’s not be racist towards China and express our xenophobia when it comes to TikTok, because American companies have done tremendous harm to American people.”

Bowman claimed that banning TikTok would harm its users, hurt businesses that use the platform for marketing, and pose a First Amendment conflict.

TikTok Creators Speak Out Against Potential App Banwww.youtube.com

The Biden administration reportedly wants TikTok to be purchased by an American company from its Chinese owners. If such an acquisition does not take place, TikTok could be banned in the U.S. An estimated 150 million Americans use the addicting, video-based social media platform.

The Justice Department is currently investigating TikTok for spying on journalists.

Meanwhile, banning TikTok is a very real possibility. Not only has legislation already been introduced, but a ban has strong bipartisan support. The bill would empower the Commerce Department to take action against foreign companies that pose a national security threat.

“We shouldn’t let any company subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s dictates collect data on a third of our population — and while TikTok is just the latest example, it won’t be the last,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said in a statement announcing the bill.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, where he faced intense bipartisan grilling about TikTok’s data collection and its purported connection to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Xi Jinping Uses Russia Trip to Position China as the Winner of Ukraine Invasion

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Chinese dictator Xi Jinping emphasized on Monday that his visit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, charged with human rights crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC) less than a week ago, is intended to promote “friendship, cooperation, and peace,” positioning China as a mediator in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Xi will be in Moscow from Monday to Wednesday, meeting with Putin and other senior leaders. Xi has emphasized China’s potential role in the Ukraine crisis since arriving, promoting a Chinese “peace plan” debuted last month that demands a ceasefire, lays no blame on either side, and does not offer specificity on its demand for both sides to “calm down as soon as possible.”

Arriving on Monday, Xi vowed that China would “stand guard over the world order,” hinting at ambitions to mediate the Ukraine conflict.

Both Russia and Ukraine have offered tepid reactions to the peace plan but have encouraged Beijing to get more involved in the conflict in the role of mediator. If successful in halting some of the hostilities, Xi could use Ukraine to greatly elevate China’s international reputation as peacemaker, even as China continues to execute a years-long genocide on its own people.

The Russian news agency Tass reported that his first meeting with Putin on Monday lasted 4.5 hours and, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “obviously” addressed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Xi and Putin will return to talks at 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Peskov added, regarding both countries’ bilateral ties and the Ukraine invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023. (PAVEL BYRKIN/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times proclaimed that the visit, Xi’s first foreign trip of the year, could elevate China’s position in the Ukraine conflict to that of successful mediator, as China “has confidence in helping the conflicting parties realize a ceasefire and restart peace talks” following its meddling in the decades-long feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The two Middle East countries announced in mid-March that they had agreed, after extensive talks in Beijing, to reestablish diplomatic relations, including the reopening of their embassies and establishing ambassador-level representation in their capitals.

China is one of Russia’s closest allies – arguably, its most prominent and reliable – but also maintains close relations with Ukraine. Ukraine is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure plan to indebt impoverished nations, and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has repeatedly made overtures to Xi for personal talks, to no avail.

“For decades, the Ukrainian-Chinese relations have been based on mutual respect, understanding and benefit,” top Ukrainian diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said in March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country. “We share Beijing’s position on the need to find a political solution to the war against Ukraine and call on China as a global power to play an important role in this effort.”

Kuleba reportedly spoke to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang last week, a conversation during which Qin assured Kuleba that communist China “stands ready to work with Ukraine to promote sustained and stable development of bilateral relations with a long-term perspective.”

“China is concerned that the crisis has dragged on and escalated and may even spiral out of control, and hopes that the relevant parties will stay cool-headed and rational, exercise restraint, resume peace talks as soon as possible,” Qin said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, “and return to the track of political settlement.”

The Global Times, citing Chinese regime-approved “experts,” said on Monday that Xi was sending “a clear signal to the world” that China is ready to “bring hope for a peaceful solution of the complicated ongoing crisis” in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023. (GRIGORY SYSOYEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

“If there is a country able to play a role in mediating the Ukraine crisis, it has to be a country with a true neutral stance and a position of justice, and the US has already lost this position,” the Global Times claimed, “so in the next stage, China will keep making efforts for mediation, and during Xi’s visit to Russia, the world will hold high expectations of what progress China will make with Russia.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin similarly suggested China was interested in a prominent position of dialogue in Ukraine, one that could greatly benefit China, during his regular press briefing on Monday. Wang was responding to questions about the purpose of Xi’s visit to Moscow and the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin.

“Our position has always been that dialogue and negotiation provides the fundamental way out for the Ukraine crisis,” Wang said, “and that the international community needs to play a constructive role in peacefully resolving the Ukraine crisis, and do more in ways that are conducive to talks for peace, deescalation and mediation efforts.”

Wang reiterated Xi’s words that the visit was one of “friendship,” “cooperation” and “peace.”
On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a summary of the nearly five-hour discussion between Xi and Putin that stated Xi emphasized his enthusiasm for interjecting China in the Ukraine invasion.

“China believes that the more difficulties there are, the greater the need to keep space for peace. The more acute the problem is, the more important it is not to give up efforts for dialogue,” Xi reportedly said. “China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Ukraine issue.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that Putin said Russia had “carefully studied China’s position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine issue and is open to talks for peace. Russia welcomes China to play a constructive role in this regard.”

The Kremlin published a transcript of the public statements the two leaders made to the press on Monday that did not mention Ukraine.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Report: Miami Marlins Blocking Anti-Communist Slogans at Cuba v. United States Baseball Game, Marco Rubio Says

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Sen. Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the Miami Marlins were reportedly blocking people from displaying anti-communist slogans at the World Baseball Classic Semifinals game.

In a video posted to Twitter just as the United States prepared to face off against Cuba in the baseball game, Rubio said that he has received reports (as well as videos) that the taxpayer-funded stadium blocked visitors from displaying messages and slogans that the communist-controlled Cuban government deemed “offensive.”

“I’m getting reports and I’m being sent videos from people trying to get into the game wearing T-shirts that say ‘Free Cuba,’ ‘Cuba Libre’ … Slogans that the Cuban regime finds offensive,” said Rubio. “And, I’m being told that the Miami Marlins, who operate this taxpayer-funded stadium are not letting people in with these things on them.”

Rubio lamented the misfortune of a U.S. taxpayer-funded stadium allegedly censoring messages to appease communists.

“So just imagine that. A U.S. citizen taxpayer-funded stadium operated by the Miami Marlins in Miami, Florida, in the United States and Americans are not allowed to take in T-shirts or flags or signs … that have messages that the Cuban regime finds offensive,” he said.

“They’re not allowed to bring them in apparently. That’s not what the Miami Marlins told us what their policies were gonna be but that’s what they’re enforcing and it’s outrageous, it’s disgusting, it’s grotesque. I hope it isn’t true, but I hope it’s being corrected,” he concluded.

Reports were mixed on whether or not the stadium was actually censoring anti-communist messages or if they were simply censoring profanity-laced messages. Latino podcasters Los Pichy Boys seemed to indicate the latter.

“The [Marlins]  just called us to confirm that Patria y Vida posters and shirts are ALLOWED!! The only thing they don’t allow are bad words,” the podcast’s Instagram account said in Spanish [translated]. Indeed, several anti-communist posters that did not contain profanity were displayed throughout the stadium

Fans hold up signs during the World Baseball Classic Semifinals between Team USA and Team Cuba at loanDepot park on March 19, 2023 in Miami, Florida.

Fans hold up signs during the World Baseball Classic Semifinals between Team USA and Team Cuba at loanDepot park on March 19, 2023, in Miami, Florida. (Eric Espada/Getty Images)

Fan holds a sign during the World Baseball Classic Semifinals between Team Cuba and Team USA at loanDepot park on March 19, 2023 in Miami, Florida.

A fan holds a sign during the World Baseball Classic Semifinals between Team Cuba and Team USA at loanDepot park on March 19, 2023, in Miami, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

One reporter countered in Spanish [translated]: “I spoke to several people live and saw how they were told: not with posters!”

Regardless, swarms of protesters denouncing the communist Castro regime were outside the stadium letting their voices be heard.