The Giant's Awake!

Land is the new gold !

When President Donald Trump expressed his desire to buy Greenland, most people laughed that off as another one of his routine tantrums. Greenland hit Trump with a sharp reply - "We're not for sale.”

Why Greenland?

1. The world’s largest island is a strategic location for a new trade route, thanks to global warming.
2. It is rich in natural resources, like coal, copper, uranium and most importantly, rare earth minerals.

But, is Trump the only one with such” absurd” proposals? China begs to differ.

Since the last few years, China has been aggressively buying foreign lands. China is ranked as the most active country in the world in land trade, buying land from 33 countries. Closely tailing China are the US and UK respectively. That’s according to a 2014 research by Lund University in Sweden.

 But, why is China buying so much land ?

1. Hunting for precious resources
2. Food security – to champion the food crisis. 

Currently, China hosts one fifth of the world’s population with only less than 10% of its total farmland in good shape. Most of China’s agricultural lands are unfit for agriculture, either due to natural disasters or contamination of heavy metals.

So, where have China placed her flags on ?

AUSTRALIA

China is the second largest foreign land-holding country in Australia (14.4 million hectares). According to the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land, Chinese ownership of Australian farmland in 2017 was 10 times the amount of land they owned in 2016. Ten times more in just one year!

Australia also sanctioned a 99 year lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company in 2015. China has also declared its intention to use the Port of Darwin for its Belt and Road initiative.

FRANCE

China owns almost 1,700 hectares of cereal farmland in Central France. Ironically, France is the biggest agricultural economy in the European Union (EU). That triggered French farmers to protest as their rice-bowls get robbed. So, when President Macron came into power, he swore to hold foreign land buyers at bay.

The Middle Kingdom is also quickly sprawling over Africa and Latin America, albeit in a slightly different fashion.

Looking at China, Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world". After almost two centuries, his prophecy finally comes true.