ABOUT DANILLO SANTOS
Danillo Santos was a
great friend China
The story of the lawyer's more than 60-year relationship with China began by chance in September 1963, when he met four Chinese who had recently arrived in Brazil to set up an exhibition of Chinese products in Rio de Janeiro. On 2 April 1964, after the military coup, the four of them and five other Chinese - two journalists and three traders who had come to buy cotton - were arrested and tortured by police from the Guanabara Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS), accused of trying to spread a communist revolution in the country, even though they had all been invited by the Brazilian government.
The story became known as "the case of the nine Chinese", the first international scandal of human rights violations committed by the military dictatorship. Danillo was the one who managed to convince the jurist Sobral Pinto, who was a friend of his father's, to defend them.
"Brazil and China have to be great partners."
The phrase was said by the then Foreign Minister, Chen Yi, to the young lawyer Danillo Santos in 1966, during his first visit to Beijing.
A true friend of China
Danillo Santos was one of Brazil's leading experts on China and was president of honour and founder of the Federation of China Friendship Associations for North America, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Danilo Santos maintained an intrinsic friendship with China, and joked that after travelling to China a hundred times he stopped counting. It all began with a beautiful coincidence. In 1963, he welcomed seven Chinese to Rio de Janeiro to take part in an exhibition. "I've never seen such correct and fighting people," Danilo recalled.
He himself experienced many important moments in Brazil-China relations, such as the rescue of nine innocent Chinese prisoners by the Brazilian authorities, the establishment of diplomatic relations and sister cities between Rio and Beijing, São Paulo and Shanghai, as well as exchanges of official visits by heads of state.
Over more than 50 years, Danilo Santos has really highlighted China's giant change from a miserable country to the world's second largest economy. In his view, no matter the regime or political system, the most fundamental thing for any government is to give the people what they deserve. He also said he admired the current Chinese president, Xi Jinping, praising him as a man who acts rather than just talks.
Danillo has travelled almost everywhere in China, except Inner Mongolia, the only place he hasn't had the chance to visit.
"The change has been total since I first came to China. But the mentality is the same - confidence in the future"
Danillo Santos
"I love Guangzhou and Shanghai, but my heart is in Beijing. Because I was part of Beijing's twinning with Rio de Janeiro," added Danillo Santos, in an interview with Diário do Povo Online, in an article published on 3 August 2018, alluding to the establishment of the relationship between the two cities on 8 October 1985.
Danillo Santos couldn't help but notice the differences in China since his last stay in the country. "Whenever I come to China, one thing I feel is that it changes a lot. Every three months the change is enormous. It's extraordinary. China's progress is unusual," he said.
Santos had the opportunity to witness the country's social transformation: "I saw the real development of China that many people haven't seen. Many of the people who experienced it have already died, and young people will never think about what China was like. Life was very hard," he explained.
The lawyer, who travelled to China more than 120 times, was 87 when he passed away in October 2021 as a result of complications from COVID-19. He leaves behind a wife, two daughters and four grandchildren.
