The Brazil-China axis continues to strengthen, even in an ambiguous and not entirely transparent way. Two recent news confirm this: the South American country, the leading global exporter of coffee, has in the last 12 months exports to Beijing tripled, exceeding one million bags and more than tenfold the 2017 figure; but above all the companies of the Dragon have decided to invest more and more in Brazil, to the point that one of them, the Brazil CRT, went as far as announcing an investment equal to the entire 2022 GDP of Brasilia. Brazil is already the Asian giant's first commercial partner in the world, but Brasil CRT's intention to spend as much as 9 trillion reais, equal to almost 2.000 billion euros, has aroused more than one suspicion, pushing the Brazilian judiciary to open a file to see clearly. Also because the Chinese consulate itself, as soon as the news came out, clarified that Beijing has no connection with the company and indeed that not even the diplomats in the South American country were aware of it: "There are reasons to believe that it is a fraud”, read the official statement.
Brasil CRT, incredible project
The Brasil CRT company, active for years in Brazil with headquarters in Belo Horizonte, has in fact proposed a project at the limits of credibility, especially in terms of investments and timing: it would like to build from scratch in the North of Brazil, in the State of Paraiba, a new Dubai, one futuristic city capable of hosting 3 million inhabitants, more than triple those currently residing in Joao Pessoa, the capital of Paraiba. All in "just" 5 years (3 years to complete the port in the meantime) and with "only" 9.000 billion reais, a figure that almost equals the gross domestic product of the whole of Brazil, among the top ten economies in the world. The exact location where "the most modern city on the American continent" will be built, as promised by the Chinese group, is called Mataraca, which today has fewer than 10 thousand inhabitants. However, there are many doubts, starting with financial availability: Brasil CRT declares a share capital equivalent to around 150 billion euros, which is quadruple what Petrobras, the largest Brazilian company and one of the largest oil groups in the world, claims.
While the Brazilian press questions the origin of the money and the reliability of a company that does not appear to have the direct backing of Beijing, the doubts are also environmental: Mataraca in fact, where CRT would like to build a large port, it's not even on the sea but about ten kilometers away, so works with an enormous impact on the territory should be carried out. The CEO of Brasil CRT is Jianing Chen, who manages the group together with his son Ruotian Chen, who speaking to the local press linked the project to the broader one of the "New Silk Road", the so-called Belt and Road Initiative, from which Italy has recently withdrawn and to which the Brazilian government has never formally joined, despite intensifying - in fact - ties with Beijing in recent years. China uses initiatives like these to expand its sphere of influence in the world, but this time neither the Brazilian press, nor politics, nor public opinion are blindly trusting: for now, as a transparency operation CRT has limited itself to opening a Facebook profile to answer user doubts.
