Renewed attacks on China by a member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s inner circle soured diplomatic relations again on Monday as Minister of Education Abraham Weintraub accused Chinese medical equipment makers of profiteering from the coronavirus pandemic.
Weintraub suggested in a Twitter post, which he later deleted on Sunday, that the disease would help China “dominate the world.”
He referenced a cartoon character with a speech impediment to mock Chinese accents.
Photo: Reuters
The Chinese embassy in Brazil, which had traded barbs last month with Bolsonaro’s son for comparing China’s handling of the disease to the former Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster, denounced the minister in a statement on Monday.
“These completely absurd and despicable declarations, with their racist character and unspeakable objectives, have caused negative influences in the healthy development of bilateral relations,” the embassy tweeted early on Monday.
The Brazilian Ministry of Education declined comment on the matter, and Weintraub did not respond to a request for comment.
In a radio interview, the minister said he was not racist. He also redoubled his attacks on China for its handling of the pandemic, accusing Chinese manufacturers of profiteering.
Weintraub said he would only apologize in exchange for a bargain on mechanical ventilators for university hospitals.
“Have them deliver 1,000 ventilators to my hospitals and I’ll go down to the embassy and say: ‘I’m an idiot,’” he told Radio Bandeirantes on Monday morning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put renewed pressure on Brazil’s relationship with China, its largest trading partner and the world’s main producer of medical supplies, underscoring deep fault lines in Bolsonaro’s government.
Last week, Brazilian Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta said that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the US government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products.
Meanwhile, Mandetta said he would stay put in his job for now, despite coming under fire from Bolsonaro for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
“I’m not bothered by the criticisms,” he told reporters on Monday evening outside the Ministry of Health in Brasilia. “But I’m bothered when the criticism is intended to make the work environment more difficult.”
Earlier on Monday, O Globo newspaper reported that Bolsonaro had decided to fire him, and would publish his decision in the official gazette by the end of the day.
While Mandetta has encouraged Brazilians to adopt the WHO’s guidance on social distancing and self-quarantining, Bolsonaro has said such a response would destroy the economy and do more harm to the population than the virus itself.
“A doctor doesn’t abandon the patient, and I won’t abandon tje country right now,” Mandetta said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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