Kazakh ban on foreign farmland sales fails to quell China distrust

Defiant opposition ready for new protests despite getting its way

20210514 kazakh farm

Combines harvest a wheat field in Kazakhstan: The issue of land ownership is extremely sensitive in the country. © Reuters

PAUL BARTLETT, Contributing writer

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakhstan has passed a law that prohibits the sale and leasing of agricultural land to foreigners and foreign companies, under pressure from opposition groups to do so.

The law, approved on Thursday, is a stricter amended version that dropped a proposal to allow foreign leasing of forests for up to 25 years -- an exception that had irked critics.

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