The repoliticisation of China’s infrastructure investments in the global south: a case study of Brazil’s agri-food system

China’s state-led infrastructure approach has shifted its role in global agricultural markets from a passive participant to a visible political and economic actor. Brazil illustrates this dynamic. Since the late 2000s, it has become a destination for Chinese agricultural investment. Following unsuccessful attempts to acquire land amid heightened food-security concerns, Chinese actors shifted towards mergers and acquisitions of incumbent agribusiness corporations, reproducing existing market practices. More recently, a third phase has emerged, marking the consolidation of Chinese presence through large-scale infrastructure projects, including transport corridors, logistics hubs, and storage facilities. Drawing on interviews and document analysis, we show that this marks a reversal of an earlier depoliticisation phase: Chinese firms are now backed by state financial and political support and negotiate extensively with Brazilian authorities. While this supports characterisations of China as state capitalist, we show that state imperatives are not imposed unilaterally from the top down. Instead, they are shaped relationally through strategic interactions during firms’ internationalisation. From this perspective, the Global South is not merely shaped by dominant actors but involved in negotiating power over production and consumption. The outcome is contradictory: Brazil’s dependency as a commodity exporter is reinforced, yet this dependency is increasingly politicised and contested.