The China insertion in the Amazon: analysis and geostrategic considerations

Abstract

The South American Amazon, sensitive and sheltered by the stock of strategic resources, lives moments of uncertainty. The regional economic matrix is based on the exploitation of natural resources for export market. A recent phenomenon in the region is the implementation of physical infrastructure based on road transportation based on the Asian interests, especially in China. A critical perspective shows that the Chinese perception in these sectors - primary sector and infrastructure expansion - is directed by a national interest. China, with defined strategic objectives, is willing to sponsor infrastructure, along with Brazil and other political and economic actors. The roads go through forests and seem to make the Chinese government interest in regional commodities; as demonstrated by the passage connecting mining and agricultural production from Brazil to Peruvian ports on the Pacific Ocean. We want to analyze the hypothesis that the development of the Amazon take risk of subordination to Chinese interests, keeping the region as one of the oldest peripheries of capitalist interstate system. Some questions arise: Is there creating new bonds of dependency? Does the Chinese expansion in the Amazon contradicts regional interests? The investments in new industrial and technological revolutions, that need abundant raw materials in the region, justify the convenience of a scientific research in this context.