By Dawn Powell

Few subjects are likely to raise hackles more quickly in Brazil than the idea of foreigners owning its natural resources. “The Chinese have bought Africa and now they’re trying to buy Brazil”, stormed Antônio Delfim Netto, a tub-thumping former finance minister during Brazil’s military dictatorship, in a newspaper interview last year.

Reading that kind of thing is no surprise in a country where you don’t have to look hard to find people discussing seriously the threat of a US invasion of the Amazon (another idea fostered by the dictatorship). But now such fears look likely to turn away Chinese investment in Brazil’s fast-moving agricultural sector. Continue reading »