Food security and power struggle in the Chinese ‘battle of the beans’

The mid-2000s foreign headway over China’s soybean downstream complex, known as the battle of beans, reinforced an uncritical nationalist discourse food security based on a Sino-foreign dichotomy. This article demonstrates through empirically rich analysis four crucial Chinese SOEs that such ignores diverging capitalist accumulation strategies two (COFCO and Chinatex) took advantage global price fluctuations to grow in association with agribusiness. Instead, I suggest reflects dynamic state-capital relations China evidenced by political reaction state-owned competitors (Jiusan Sinograin), endorsing its appeal.