Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Cross-border feudalism
China and Japan have been engaging in neo-colonial activities in Africa for quite a while. Give farmers seeds and equipment, or give them an aquifer, then contract for the resulting food. This isn't really colonial as such; it's just a plain old investment spread across many 'factories'.
China's latest move in Ukraine and other places adds a new ingredient, but it's still not colonialism......
China's official Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has signed an agreement with Ukrainian agricultural firm KSG Agro, which would see Ukraine provide 100,000 hectares to China. That would eventually rise to 3 million hectares.Ukraine's total area is 57 million hectares, so the Chinese lease would be about 7% of the country. This is more like cross-border feudalism than colonialism. It's a significant switch from the era of the nation-state, moving back toward the era when lords and dukes actually owned their countries. Considering the total fucking disaster of the nation-state era, it's refreshing to see a variety of oldnew forms emerging. This particular arrangement diminishes the sovereignty of Ukraine's national government and increases the commercial power and wealth of Ukraine's working farmers. At the moment it looks like an all-around win. Old-style feudalism was characterized by complex jigsaw puzzles of enclaves and exclaves which made totalitarian control difficult. When the tenants of Lord Hruolandus have to plow around the lands of Duke Gerulph, and the tenants of Duke Gerulph have to walk across the lands of Earl Aethelstan, it's very difficult for Duke Gerulph to create a closed society. You need compact borders to do the North Korea thing. New-style feudalism is even more exclavious, with pieces of Africa and pieces of Ukraine and bits of Australia working for Chinese lords. However: this effect can cut both ways. Stalin created patterns of ethnic exclaves and enclaves within his existing empire, to prevent ethnic groups from gaining a sense of unity and power. ¶ 6:07 PM
