A significant phenomenon of the international system over the past decade is the empowerment of emerging economies, particularly the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), in diplomatic and trade relations. Thus, alliances between China, the world’s largest developing country, and newly efficacious powers in the global South have become salient topics in foreign policy research. This article focuses on the relations China maintains with Portuguese-speaking countries, or Lusophonia, which are notable for their geographic and cultural heft in the global South. As a nation removed from foreign imperial influence only a few decades ago, China shares a series of cultural commonalities with a Brazil-dominated Lusophonia that represents key political influences in middle-income countries. As a result, Lusophone countries are core targets in an overall international policy strategy that serves to benefit China for continued trade and economic growth, an orientation well aligned to enhance Sino-Lusophone cooperation in the short to medium term.
CITATION STYLE
Vogt, W. J. (2017). China and Lusophonia: A compatible alliance network? China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies, 3(4), 551–573. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2377740017500312
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