Several years ago, when food prices started rising sharply, triggering riots from Bangladesh to Yemen, stories began circulating about massive Chinese land grabs in Africa. In Zimbabwe, a Chinese company was said to have leased a quarter of a million acres to grow maize for export to China, even while hunger stalked Zimbabwe itself. In the impoverished and anarchic Democratic Republic of Congo, ZTE, a Chinese telecoms company keen on diversification, was apparently investing in a 3m-hectare palm oil plantation. Chinese businesses were said to control most of Zambia’s fertile farmland.
幾年前,糧食價格開始急劇上漲,在從孟加拉國到也門等多地引發(fā)了騷亂。自此,有關中國在非洲大肆掠奪土地的故事就流傳了開來。據(jù)稱一家中國公司在津巴布韋租用了25萬英畝土地,種植玉米并出口至中國,而津巴布韋本國就飽受饑荒之苦。在貧困、動蕩的剛果民主共和國,熱衷于多元經(jīng)營的中國電信公司中興(ZTE)據(jù)說要投資一個300萬公頃的油棕櫚種植園。據(jù)說,中國企業(yè)控制了贊比亞大多數(shù)肥沃的農田。