Political economy of land grabbing inside China involving foreign investors

China tends to be a dominant figure in the literature on global land grabbing. It is either cast as a major land grabber in distant places such as Africa, or as a key player in crop booms elsewhere because it provides for massive market demand, such as for soya from South America. These are all important issues and are well covered in the literature. However, the crop booms inside China that involve transnational capital and investors – and have provoked conflict around land politics – have been overlooked. Spotlighting the issue of land grabbing inside China reminds us that capital accumulation is principally interested in geographies and settings where it can generate profit – regardless of nationalities, boundaries, structural or institutional conditions. This paper hopes to contribute towards a more refined picture of global land grabbing

Land grabbing by villagers? Insights from intimate land grabbing in the rise of industrial tree plantation sector in Guangxi, China

While most studies focus on large-scale foreign corporate-dominated land grabbing, relatively small-scale land acquisitions initiated by local villagers receive much less attention. This reflects that the scale, the identity of investors and a simplified role of villagers tend to take precedence in analyses of land grabbing. However, the common dichotomies of “large vs small” “outside vs local actors” and “victim vs grabber” might be problematic and even misleading, considering the case of Guangxi. In China's Guangxi province, with the rise of the industrial tree planation (ITP) sector, some villagers have gained control over the land from local or nearby village collectives and have become owners of ITPs. Over the course of these practices, grabbers are not from “outside” but “local villagers” themselves. They are then able to control the land, which was originally collectively used and benefit from it at the expense of their neighbours and kin, under certain contexts. Such land control change is called intimate land grabbing. This case demonstrates that: (1) small-scale land grabs are not necessarily less significant than large-scale ones; (2) land grabs dominated by local actors sometimes have more serious adverse impacts on local communities; and (3) villagers can also be grabbers, rather than simply victims, or otherwise resisters. In bringing the issue of intimate land grabbing into the debate, this paper argues that the importance of a land grab is neither represented by its scale nor the identity of the grabber(s), but by its de facto consequences, especially the distribution

Politics of inclusion and exclusion in the Chinese industrial tree plantation sector

In the last two decades, the industrial tree plantation (ITP) sector has expanded rapidly in southern China, causing important changes in land-use and land control. It involves both domestic and transnational corporations, and has provoked widespread conflict and political contestations. The villagers who are affected by the expansion of ITPs have reacted in varied and complex ways: some of the villagers were incorporated in the ITP sector, while others are excluded; some have embraced the change, while others have complaints; and some of the complaints remained latent, while others developed into (overt or covert) forms of resistance. This paper explores how and why various social groups have responded differently to the expansion of ITPs. This paper reveals the dynamics of villagers’ inclusion and exclusion in the ITP sector, covering both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ forms of inclusion and exclusion, resulting in differentiated political reactions from villagers. This paper hopes to contribute towards a more comprehensive understanding of the complex engagement of villagers in changes in land use and land control, not just in the most commonly studied countries in global land grabbing but inside China, and in transactions that involved large foreign companies, something that has so far been missed in the literature on land grabbing

The Political Economy of Industrial Tree Plantations in the Era of Global Land Rush: the case of Guangxi, China

The industrial tree plantation (ITP) sector is expanding rapidly and massively in Southern China, and recently especially in Guangxi. The rise of the ITP sector, involving both foreign and domestic actors, has led to extensive changes in land-use and land control, as well as in labour conditions and livelihoods in the villagers in question. These changes and the resulting encroachment by the ITP sector, has led to diverse political reactions by the affected villagers. Exploring the dynamics of the sector’s expansion in Southern China offers, on the one hand, a more refined analysis of the role of China in global land politics and calls for a rethink of the nature of land politics. On the other hand, it helps to deepen the understanding of a complex maze of recent and dramatic agrarian transformations in Guangxi involving the land-labour nexus and villagers’ livelihood changes. In this context, the central research question is: Why and how did the industrial tree plantation sector expand in Southern China, and what implications does it have for the livelihoods of rural villagers? Using a critical agrarian political economy and political ecology analytical framework, this study explores the dynamics of the ITP sector’s expansion in Southern China - contextually, interactively, and dynamically. This study demonstrates that the rise of the ITP sector emerged under particular economic, political, and social conditions worldwide and in China, while the contours and trajectories of the ITP sector (re)shape and are (re)sha

Breast cancer incidence among US women aged 20 to 49 years by race, stage, and hormone receptor status

IMPORTANCE: Breast cancer in young women has a less favorable prognosis compared with older women. Yet, comprehensive data on recent trends and how period and cohort effects may affect these trends among young women are not well-known. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate breast cancer incidence among young women in the US over a 20-year period by race and ethnicity, hormone receptor status (estrogen receptor [ER] and progesterone receptor [PR]), tumor stage, and age at diagnosis, as well as how period and cohort effects may affect these trends. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used data from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 17 registries (2000-2019). Women aged 20 to 49 years with a primary invasive breast cancer were included. Data were analyzed between February and June 2023. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR), incidence rate ratios (IRR), and average annual percent changes (AAPC) stratified by race and ethnicity, hormone receptor status, tumor stage, and age at diagnosis. RESULTS: Out of 217 815 eligible women (1485 American Indian or Alaska Native [0.7%], 25 210 Asian or Pacific Islander [11.6%], 27 112 non-Hispanic Black [12.4%], 37 048 Hispanic [17.0%], 126 960 non-Hispanic White [58.3%]), the majority were diagnosed with an ER+/PR+ tumor (134 024 [61.5%]) and were diagnosed with a stage I tumor (81 793 [37.6%]). Overall, invasive breast cancer incidence increased (AAPC, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.42 to 1.15), with increasing trends across almost all racial and ethnic groups. ASIR increased for ER+/PR+ (AAPC, 2.72; 95% CI, 2.34 to 3.12) and ER+/PR- tumors (AAPC, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.87), and decreased for ER-/PR+ (AAPC, -3.25; 95% CI, -4.41 to -2.07) and ER-/PR- tumors (AAPC, -0.55; 95% CI, -1.68 to 0.60). For women aged 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 years, ASIRs were highest among non-Hispanic Black women (age 20-29 years: IRR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.43 to 1.65; age 30-39 years: IRR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.18). For women aged 40 to 49 years, ASIR was lower for non-Hispanic Black women (IRR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94 to 0.97) compared with non-Hispanic White women. Incidence rates increased for stages I and IV tumors but decreased for stage II and III tumors. Age-period-cohort analysis demonstrated both cohort and period effects on breast cancer incidence (P \u3c .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this population-based cross-sectional analysis, an increase in breast cancer incidence rates among young US women and age-related crossover between non-Hispanic White and Black women were observed. Prevention efforts in young women need to adopt a targeted approach to address racial disparities in incidence rates observed at different age phases