Brazil, China should deepen cooperation under current situation: scholar

Active economic cooperation with China has brought positive results to Brazil's development, leading the Latin American country to seek deeper ties with China in the face of US unilateral policies including tariffs, said a Brazilian scholar.

Larissa Wachholz, a senior fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) that Brazil has a strategic and time-honored relationship with the United States, yet the recent U.S. policies have put Brazil in a challenging position.

"I think that Brazil has a very challenging [situation]. It's a big challenge to balance the relationship with different countries in the world. But this is what we have been trying to do since the early years that the Brazilian diplomatic strategy was in place. So I think the challenge remains there. And at the same time, Brazil and China have been strengthening their relationship, regardless of the U.S. position for the past number of years," Wachholz said.

She underscored that Brazil and China have established a mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade cooperation relationship. Many cooperation projects are of great significance to the development of Brazil.

"In 2009, China became Brazil's largest commercial partner. And from 2010 onwards, in particular, it has been increasing its stock of foreign direct investment in Brazil. It's mutually beneficial on the two sides, because it is focused on the assets that are like capital intensive assets that Brazil wouldn't be able to develop on its own because of its lack of savings and really financial resources and fiscal space to implement the projects by itself," Wachholz said.

"Having China partner with us to develop some of these very expensive projects in energy generation and transmission has proved itself a very, very positive development strategy for the country. So I think that it will remain like that in the sense that China and Brazil will remain very strong partners. But I think what we can expect from the future is a deeper level of sophistication to this relationship, which is what I think Brazil is looking at, at the moment," she said.

Brazil, China should deepen cooperation under current situation: scholar

China's movie industry is increasingly deriving its earnings from broader consumer economy.

Released during the 2025 summer season, the film "Nobody" became China's highest-grossing two-dimensional animated film -- and its success went beyond theaters.

Through licensing and brand partnerships, the movie has generated 2.5 billion yuan (about 358.3 million U.S. dollars) in retail sales to consumers, with more than 800 licensed products on the market.

Ranging from plush toys to food and home goods, the movie-related merchandise can be purchased from over 3,000 online and offline outlets.

Meanwhile, souvenir stores are crowded at Shanghai Disneyland's Zootopia themed land, with hats, plush toys, and collectibles seeing steady demand from visitors.

"China's film industry is no longer defined by box office revenue alone. It has become a new growth engine that links and energizes multiple cultural sectors. At the heart of every successful film is strong storytelling. High-quality productions create cultural value, which in turn enhances the commercial value of intellectual property and opens up new consumption opportunities. I believe China's film industry delivered an outstanding performance in the past year," said Chen Xiaoda, vice dean of Shanghai Vancouver Film School.

Film IP fuels expansion of consumer market