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China's Engagement in African Agriculture: “Down to the Countryside”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2009

Deborah A. Bräutigam  and
Tang Xiaoyang
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Abstract

Agriculture is a rapidly growing arena for China's economic engagement in Africa. Drawing on new field research in East and West Africa, and in Beijing and Baoding, China, as well as earlier archival research, this article investigates the dimensions of China's agricultural engagement, placing it in historical perspective. It traces the changes and continuities in China's policies in rural Africa since the 1960s, as Chinese policies moved from fraternal socialism to amicable capitalism. Beginning in the 1980s, the emphasis on aid as mutual benefit began to blur the lines between aid, south–south co-operation and investment. Today, Beijing has established at least 14 new agro-technical demonstration stations using an unusual public–private model that policy makers hope will assist sustainability. At the same time, a stirring of interest among land-scarce Chinese farmers and investors in developing farms in sub-Saharan Africa evokes a mix of anticipation and unease.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 199 , September 2009 , pp. 686 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2009

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References

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24 Ibid.

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64 Xiao Sanza, “Ten years in Africa of headman Liu Jianjun.”

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66 He told one of the authors that Chinese embassies usually sign agreements with African governments to confirm the land lease contracts. Liu and the Baoding entrepreneurs seek protection for their projects by developing connections with African politicians and local leaders through local Chinese communities. They also locate their projects far from cities, where the land is easy to obtain, the officers are friendly and violence is low. Interview, Liu Jianjun.

67 In an area of 518 km sq, the entrepreneurs planned to build an airport, harbour, agricultural technology demonstration parks, wood and fish processing factories, industrial parks, trading centres, banks, villas and other facilities. “ZhongWu liangguo zai Beijing chengli dongFei ziyou maoyiqu” (“In Beijing, China and Uganda establish East Africa Free Trade Zone”), 7 November 2008, http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20081107/13505480670.shtml, accessed 5 December 2008.

68 For a case study of this, see Deborah Bräutigam, “Land rights and agricultural development in West Africa: a case study of two Chinese projects,” Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 25, No. 4 (1992), pp. 21–32. We appreciate comments by an external reviewer about this issue.

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