[henkster]

The one thing that has occurred to me is that Rhodesia was once the breadbasket of southern Africa when the white farmers ran the place.

However, southern Africa has always been a mineral treasure house. And the Chinese want access to it, but they don’t want to send their own people over there to get it. It’s part of the “Belt and Road” thing. They build the ports, roads and railways to get the stuff shipped to them. But the locals have to dig it out.

So, if they are relying on the local labor force, they need to make sure they are well fed. So, they want to get the white farmers back to make Zimbabwe back into the Rhodesian breadbasket.

[Svartalfiar]

So, if they are relying on the local labor force, they need to make sure they are well fed.

And how is China gonna do that? they're already having enough food issues with drought, floods, locusts, swine culls, chicken culls, and if/when the Three Gorges goes, that flooding hits 85% of their food production even worse.