Ever since its maturing economy stopped producing the explosive GDP growth numbers that dazzled the world, China has been on the hunt for more agricultural land. Beijing sees Africa as having the potential for big returns on investment. It has sold its presence to local governments and people with slogans like “win-win” and “hand-in-hand,” even as its terms of cooperation have been decidedly one-sided.
Infrastructure projects are secondary to what appears to be Beijing’s principal objective—to exploit Africa’s fertile plains in order to feed China’s massive population. Africa is home to 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated land. Yet despite its abundance of land, Sub-Saharan Africa must import food to feed its population.
Westerners typically discount the strategic role of agriculture, but China cannot afford to do so. Beijing has over 1.4 billion mouths to feed. If China can take control of Africa’s land resources and eliminate its own dependence on Western imports to feed its own population, it will have greater freedom in its military moves. Food is power, and Africa’s arable land is a resource more valuable to China than any rare earth metal.
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To compete, the United States needs to present a better vision for Africa’s future than China—one in which the continent’s vast agricultural potential is used to develop self-sufficiency, environmental stability, and economic prosperity.
