China on alert over food security

topic:	Food Security
located:	China
editor:	Stella Tsang

Amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global food security has become a major concern. Not only because poorer nations have directly suffered from the rising prices of grain and oilseed products, of which Ukraine and Russia are major producers and exporters, but the conflict has exacerbated instability on the international scene and prompted other countries to examine whether they can meet their own food needs.

Among those countries is China, whose surging rhetoric about safeguarding food security reflects how alert the authorities are. With more than 1.4 billion people to feed, the country’s food security has been closely linked to its national security. Although China is the world's largest importer of food, due to the outbreak of the US-China trade war, the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country has become more eager to strive for a higher self-sufficiency in food production.

For instance, state media’s coverage on food self-sufficiency was quite intensive at the beginning of June. Reports emphasised the bumper harvest of summer grains this year, claiming that about 11.13 million hectares of winter wheat (which is more than half of the total) had been reaped by 6 June. Various articles also stressed the necessity to minimise losses during harvesting.

Following this announcement, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to the Sichuan province to examine rice paddy fields in Meishan city on 8 June. Local media coverage linked his act to “caring for food security,” while critics believe the visit is a gesture to call for economic and social stability ahead of the 20th party congress later this year. By that time, whether President Xi would secure an unprecedented third term is to be seen.

Apart from this, outside of the country, state media made a comeback on 9 June by claiming that, unlike the US, China has made great efforts to secure global food security. It also opposed allegations about China hoarding grains and further exacerbating global food shortages, claiming that they were distorting the food issue into the "China threat" narrative.

Earlier, Chinese state media already claimed that some Western media outlets had used food security as a fresh topic to smear China, in accordance with the US' efforts to expand the Western countries' hostility of Russia against China.

With the above internal and external factors, and the growing fears of an impending global food crisis, China’s upcoming actions regarding food security could have significant impacts on the international scene and should be under close observation.

Photo by Patrick McGregor