Paper short abstract:

What explains the pattern of Chinese land-based investment in African Agriculture? This paper uses median-N comparative case studies to demonstrate that African states have played an important role in defining Chinese investment patterns in their land.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the question that What explains Chinese investment in Agriculture in African countries? In the field of international land-based investments, the dominant narrative is that big powerful countries just enter into Africa and 'grab' the African land they want. Especially in the literature of China in Africa, the overarching theories portray China as a homogenous entity, and see Chinese overseas land-based investments as China's economic statecraft. However, there is accumulating evidence that shows great variation across and within African countries regarding foreign, including Chinese, land investment patterns. This suggests that African agency has played a pivotal role in defining variation patterns of foreign investment in land, and that, there are subtle and often decisive local constraints that shape investors' strategies. To fill in the gap in scholarship on property rights in land and international investments, this paper takes Chinese agricultural investments in Tanzania and Zambia as case studies. This paper argues, firstly, majority of Chinese agricultural investments are conducted by private actors and are closely in line with their own commercial rationale. Secondly, African states have played an important role in defining Chinese investment patterns in their land. This thesis will use detailed case studies to show how Chinese investors' choices around the nature and locations of their agricultural investment projects are shaped by the national governing strategies of African countries, which vary both cross-nationally and across subnational political-economic contexts. The case studies will be based on over 150 interviews that I have collected during my 8-month fieldwork in Tanzania and Zambia.