Report: China Seeking to Bring 'Silk Road' to Amazon with Help from Socialist Brazil

Infobae claimed in its report that China's plans for an "Amazon Silk Road" calls for Chinese state-owned companies to establish trade routes and business dealings in the Amazon Rainforest region and exploit the area's rich natural resources, raising concerns about environmental repercussions and potential deforestation. Although the subject of Brazil joining China's predatory Belt and Road Initiative was reportedly discussed during Lula's visit to China, Brazil is not officially part of the program. Among the members of the Chinese delegation who visited Pará in February were representatives of the Chinese state-owned Zhuhai Sino-Lac Supply Chain Co., a company "Specializing in transnational customs operations and warehousing between China and Latin America." Infobae reported that the company is allegedly building a logistics center dedicated to Latin America in the Gaolan port of the city of Zhuhai in China. The news outlet noted that the prospective new Maritime Silk Road in the Amazon region, which would mainly be focused on biofertilizer and bioeconomy trade, reflects China's newfound interest in the resource-rich region, which has "Exponentially grown" in recent years after being erstwhile considered as having "No significant role" in the trade between China and Brazil. According to the Brazil-China Business Council, a non-governmental organization, the Amazon Rainforest only received $11 billion the $66 billion in direct investments that China made in Brazil between 2007 and 2020. Brazil tops the list of countries in the region that have gained the most from trading with China. The potential threats to the Amazon Rainforest would add to the ongoing environmental damage that Chinese illegal fishing vessels are causing not just to Brazil, but all throughout Latin America, as well as the illegal wildlife trafficking of local fauna shipped to China from Brazil through a route that passes through neighboring Guyana and Suriname.