China ‘land grab’ sees it given control of 5% of Ukraine, accused of ‘neo-colonialism’

25 September 2013
Alex Spillius

Ukraine has agreed a deal with a Chinese company to lease 5% of its land to feed China’s burgeoning population, it was reported on Tuesday.

“This reminds us of a colonial process even when there is no colonial link between the two countries involved,” said Christina Plank, the co-author of a report by the Transnational Institute on “land-grabbing”.

“The special thing about Ukraine is that there is so much land and so much food left, so there is not a danger of shortage. They already export a lot of grain that they cannot consume on their own,” said Ms Plank.

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