Special Issue: Conspiracy Theories in Digital Environments Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 2022, Vol. 0(0) 1–16 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/13548565221105789 journals.sagepub.com/home/con Coronavirus meets the clash of civilizations Afonso de Albuquerque , Thaiane M Oliveira , Marcelo A dos Santos Jr., Rodrigo Quinan and Daniela Mazur Federal Fluminense University, Brazil Abstract Conspiracy Theories (CTs) are a global phenomenon, but some societies are better equipped than others to resist them. This article discusses the characteristics of the China-related COVID-19 CTs in the Brazilian Facebook, based on 28,312 posts published from January 2020 to June 2021. We argue that, in Brazil, the spread of CTs was facilitated by a widespread political and knowledge institutions’ legitimacy crisis. The rise of the extremist politician Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency provides evidence in this regard. In consequence, the boundaries between fringe and mainstream politics become porous. This article discusses which agents disseminate China-related COVID-19 CTs, and which topics receive more attention. We found a significant presence of actors belonging to mainstream politics and the media among the CTs’ main disseminators. Additionally, the CTs circulating in the Brazilian social media environment reproduce concerns about China’s growing presence in the global arena, which originate elsewhere. Still, they add a specific emphasis on the Communist threat. We sustain that this emphasis relates as much to Brazil’s internal politics as to China itself. Keywords Brazil, Bolsonaro, China, communism, Conspiracy theories, COVID-19, institutional crisis, orientalism Introduction Conspiracy Theories (CTs hereafter) are non-orthodox efforts to provide an apparently senseless reality with meaning. In a time when ordinary citizens’ lives increasingly depend on a network of distant institutions and experts (Giddens, 1992), CTs provide them with a resource to cope in an uncertain world (Benkler et al., 2018; Dahlgren, 2018; Humprecht et al., 2020). The COVID-19 Corresponding author: Afonso d Albuquerque, Cultural and Media Studies, Federal Fluminense University, Rua Professor Marcos Waldemar de Freitas, Bloco A, Niteroi 24220-900, Brazil. Email: afonsoalbuquerque@id.uff.br