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，在從孟加拉到葉門等多地引發了騷亂。自此，有關中國在非洲大肆掠奪土地的故事就流傳了開來。據稱一家中國公司在辛巴威租用了25萬英畝土地，種植玉米並出口至中國，而辛巴威本國就飽受饑荒之苦。在貧困、動盪的剛果民主共和國，熱衷於多元經營的中國電信公司中興(ZTE)據說要投資一個300萬公頃的油棕櫚種植園。據說，中國企業控制了尚比亞大多數肥沃的農田。