The People's Republic of China from the perspective of the Geisel administration (1974-1979): Itamaraty and the state intelligence bodies

• Grant number: 19/19487-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2020
• End date: March 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Luis Moreli Rocha
• Grantee: Leonardo Façanha Derenze
• Host Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to study the relations between Brazil and the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the Geisel administration (1974-79), from the perspective of the intelligence bodies of the Brazilian military regime. Bearing in mind the importance of the analysis produced by those bodies to the policy and decision-making process of the Brazilian state in a regional context of anti-communist dictatorships and in a global context of the Cold War, scenario fraught with tensions between the West and PRC, we seek to investigate which views were formulated and propagated by the Brazilian state at the time. The historiography of Brazilian foreign policy has been much driven by the idea of formulating grand economic and political frameworks in order to explain the country's international integration. The works related to the Military Dictatorship (1964 - 1984) are bound to that same trend, in general. Recent studies insert questions regarding transnational activities of vigilance and political repression in the investigations of the period's foreign policy, more notably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in the formulation and execution of such activities. In present times, these inquiries benefit from extended access to the documentation, with sources released by the National Truth Commission (Comissão Nacional da Verdade, 2011 - 2014), among others. In this sense, the research aims to shed light on the literature regarding the Brazilian foreign policy, expanding the comprehension about the operation of the intelligence bodies during the Military Dictatorship, as well as to offer a contribution to the studies of relations between Latin America and the PRC, which are still much limited to the countries on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.