Debun king a Myth

　　It’s the kind of headline that sells magazines：

　　“China Buys Up the World” in a November 2010 issueof The Economist， illustrated by a faceless， militaristic figureloading cars， oil barrels， power lines and various manufacturedgoods into a giant shopping basket. But reports of theChinese Government buying up hundreds of thousands ofhectares of land in Africa to grow crops for Chinese dinnertables， or to secure political or military interests， are simplyfalse and Chinese aid to Africa is far more complex， saidpanelists at May 16 conference sponsored by The JohnsHopkins University School of Advanced International Studies(SAIS) in Washington， DC.

　　“Agriculture is part of the general framework of policiesand preferences for going global， but there hasn’t been areal highlighting of attention to this. I think these issues arestill controversial in China in terms of how much food securityshould be a domestic matter that can be controlledwithin the borders of China and how much it should rely onglobal trade，” said Deborah Brautigam， professor， Directorof the SAIS-China Africa Research Initiative (SAIS-CARI)，and author of The Dragon’s Gift： The Real Story of China inAfrica and Chinese Aid and African Development： ExportingGreen Revolution.

　　It’s easy to overestimate China’s agricultural interest inAfrica， Brautigam said. China has 20 percent of the world’spopulation， but only 9 percent of the world’s land and 6percent of its fresh water resources. The growing middleclass has increased demand for meat and soybeans thatare used to feed livestock. It seems likely China would beinterested in the millions of acres of uncultivated land inAfrica.

　　Media histrionics over large-scale farming projectsfunded by the Chinese Government， however， are demonstrablyfalse. Reports of “land grabbing” can be broken intofive categories， according to Brautigam： media myths andfalse reports； aid projects that have now been privatized；construction contracts； government projects that werelaunched more than a decade ago； and real， currentinterests.

　　Case in point is a 2010 joint venture agreementbetween the China National Agricultural DevelopmentGroup and the China-Africa DevelopmentFund to do agricultural investment in Africa.

　　“This fund was mistakenly described in onemedium as being a $5 billion fund to invest inagriculture in Africa and that’s far from the realstory，” Brautigam said. “The real story is that it isa 1 billion renminbi fund， which is $161 million.

　　This is still a sizeable amount of money， but it’sa small fraction of $5 billion – and so far whatthey’ve done is to buy into existing Chinese ventures thathave been around for quite a while.”

　　According to research published by economists Jean-Jacques Gabas and Xiaoyang Tang for French agriculturalresearch group CIRAD， China is considered a major donor ofagricultural aid in Sub-Saharan Africa， though the amountof its aid remains well below that of OECD countries (about$130 million from 2009 to 2012). Of the 100 projectsincluded in the study， 60 percent were given grants and theremaining were awarded public or private loans. Chineseaid， however， is expected to increase with the growingneeds of China’s developing infrastructure and the searchfor mineral and oil resources. The preferred method for aidand investment is trending toward joint ventures， privatizationand government grants.

　　But is “land grabbing” a part of the package？ Absolutelynot， conclude Gabas and Tang. According to Land Matrixdata， China’s public and private land acquisitions represent290，000 hectares - 15 times less than the land acquired bythe United States and almost 10 times less than the UnitedArab Emirates. Chinese agricultural companies almostexclusively develop food crops for local African markets.

　　“Contrary to the idea that the government in Beijing isorchestrating a surge of Chinese companies and entrepreneurs，Chinese cooperation is marked by the multiplication- most often uncoordinated - of diverse operators. Until the1990s， the Chinese Government controlled all interventionsin the agricultural sector in Africa. But since then， theinstitutional landscape has become more diversified andcomplex，” write Gabas and Tang.

　　The Johns Hopkins University SAIS launched the ChinaAfrica Research Initiative this year to promote researchand collaboration to better understand the economic andpolitical dimensions of China-Africa relations and theirimplications for human security and global development. Inits initial efforts， the initiative is focused on agriculture， atopic that touches on multiple concerns， from supplychains， global manufacturing， trade， peacekeepingand strategic cooperation betweenmajor powers in Africa， said David Lampton，SAIS professor of China Studies.

　　In addition to conferences， the initiativeincludes the development of new courses forstudents， seminars， educational opportunitiesand efforts to rectify media and publicmisperceptions on Chinese-African relations，Robert Thompson， SAIS professor of globalagriculture， told ChinAfrica.