China's ‘Developmental Outsourcing’: A critical examination of Chinese global ‘land grabs’ discourse

Abstract

This paper examines China's overseas land-based investments in agriculture. Our hypothesis is that -despite extensive media, NGO and scholarly attention to China's global resource-seeking activities -the discourse on Chinese 'land grabs' is insufficiently informed by the available data. Moreover, we argue that China's overseas land-based investments are part of what can be termed 'developmental outsourcing'. Different from a conventional interpretation of outsourcing, this concept refers to global off-shoring in which the state plays a key role in planning, intervention and regulation. This paper does not aim to provide definitive answers, yet intends to scrutinize the data and re-examine the 'land grabbing' discourse. This will be done by studying land-based investments in terms of incidence, size and geographical dispersion over 1949-2011. Where relevant and possible, other variables such as the investor, data source, investment type and outcome will be discussed. Lastly, we will also discuss the data quality and reliability.

Feeding (On) Geopolitical Anxieties: Asian Appetites, News Media Framing and the 2007–2008 Food Crisis

“…The blame on China and India by the media, as concluded by previous research, 58 The narrative of food vs. fuel constructed by the China Daily is also present in many news stories collected from World Major Newspaper group. 59 Some stories constructed the narrative using the 'fuel tank' and 'empty stomach' contrast ('to fill the tank of one SUV with ethanol would require grain to feed one person for a year'), echoing what Robert Zoellick, the former World Bank president said 'While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day'.…”

“…15 Recent overseas investments by China, South Korea and Middle East firms and sovereign funds, notably in Africa, further fed the fears of resource insecurity manifest in the 'global land grab' discourse in the West. 16 Securitized narratives of food crisis based on 'neo-Malthusian predictions of an imminent descent into socio-political chaos amidst growing global food supply-demand imbalances' often call forth liberal humanitarian interventions that focus on technical fixes and liberal markets. 17 Such solutions constitute a big part of the securitized neoliberal approach to food security adopted by national governments, inter-governmental organizations and transnational food corporations.…”

China: Cooperación Sur-Sur y land grabbing. Un análisis desde las resistencias sociales al proyecto Xai-Xai en Mozambique

“…(2012) clasifican los países en los que se originan las inversiones en tierras en países emergentes, entre ellos China, Brasil y Sudáfrica; Estados del Golfo como Arabia Saudita y Qatar; y Estados del Norte Global, cuyo ejemplo son Estados Unidos y los miembros de la Unión Europea. De cualquier modo, la atención de la prensa, ONG's y la academia fue capturada por China, desatando una plétora de informes sobre sus inversiones en tierras (Brautigam y Zhang, 2013;Hofman & Ho, 2012;GRAIN, 2008).…”

“…La creciente presencia de la potencia emergente en el continente africano ha sido objeto de intensos debates, en los que perspectivas optimistas que destacan los componentes cooperativos y las posibilidades de desarrollo local se contraponen a visiones pesimistas que alertan sobre el neocolonialismo chino (Hofman &Ho, 2012;Kabunda & Bello, 2007;Lechini, 2013).…”

“…En este escenario, uno de los aspectos más controvertidos del accionar exterior de China han sido sus inversiones para asegurarse el control de tierras agrícolas en Estados extranjeros (Brautigam & Ekman, 2012;Hofman & Ho, 2012). El activo papel del gigante asiático en el proceso global de acaparamiento de tierras desatado en el contexto de la convergencia de crisis internacionales -alimentaria, energética, financiera y climática -del año 2008, condujo a que fuese calificado Estado acaparador de tierras .…”