February 8, 2010

China's proposal to lease Kazakhstan land for agriculture raises concerns

Kazakhstan's government is considering a plan that would enable China to lease a large swath of Kazakhstan land for agricultural use, but critics are concerned about the implications on state sovereignty.

Controversy has been brewing since December, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that China had expressed a desire to lease a million hectares of Kazakhstan land. Under the proposal, Chinese growers would cultivate soy and rapeseed on the leased land. The government insists that opponents of the lease-scheme are overreacting.

Despite government assurances, the possibility that China could possess Kazakhstan territory leaves many citizens restless, and their fears were on full display at a January 30 rally against the plan. The officially sanctioned gathering drew roughly 1,500 people. Participants portrayed the deal as a threat to national security.

Even before the late January rally, the strong public reaction to the plan had officials backtracking. "No one is going give land away to the Chinese," Prime Minister Karim Masimov said on December 14. Both he and Nazarbayev pointed out that the constitution bans foreigners from owning land in Kazakhstan.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Arman Yevniyev clarified the same day that what the government has in mind is the joint production of soy, rapeseed and corn in Kazakhstan with Chinese growers. "Negotiation procedures are now starting, and in the near future representatives of the Chinese side should come for talks," he said.

Land remains a highly emotive issue in Kazakhstan. The traditional pastoral, nomadic ways of the Kazakhs were devastated by Stalin's collectivisation policies in the late 1920s and 30s. At least a million people died in a famine caused by the state's effort to drive nomadic herdsmen into collective farms.