Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cast China in a harsh light on Friday, assigning blame to Beijing, along with American and European companies, for practices that have allowed the country to pull off rapid technological advances.
Discussing Brazil’s international relations in a radio interview, Lula said China has become a technological powerhouse by “copying everything” produced by foreign companies in the 1980s and improving upon Western products, thereby “giving a lesson to capitalism”.
He also chided European and American companies for moving their operations to China to exploit what he described as the “slave labour of a country with a very harsh political regime”.
“What did the Chinese do? They copied. Yes, they copied. Unlike us in Brazil, who respect patent laws, they copied everything. They copied, improved, and sent many people abroad to study,” Lula remarked.
