Aid For Poultry Recovery

On July 11, the Ministry of Finance issued 300 million yuan in funds to help the poultry industry recover from the downturn caused by avian influenza earlier this year. The funds are targeted for interest rate subsidies for short-term working capital loans for companies engaged in breeding poultry and processing of poultry meat and eggs. The purpose of the subsidies is to support and protect poultry production capacity, protect farmer profits, and help the poultry industry "weather the storm."

This tranche of subsidies follows an earlier injection of 300 million yuan to subsidize purchases of grandparent breeding stock. That makes a cumulative total of 600 million yuan (nearly $100 million). The Ministry of Agriculture and other departments have implemented other measures to help the poultry industry recover from its depressed state during this year's avian influenza epidemic.

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Xi Jinping's Doctoral Thesis

Xi Jinping is the vice president and presumed next president of China but little is known about him. In this post the dimsums blog offers its contribution to the genre of Xi Jinping-ology by conveying Xi's decade-old views on agricultural markets. Ten years ago Xi Jinping wrote a thesis, "Tentative Study of Agricultural Marketization" (中国农村市场化研究) for a Doctor of Law degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, a top breeding-ground for Chinese officials. The dimsums blogger has spent several hours poring over the 200-plus page tome to see what it reveals about Dr. Xi. The thesis is remarkably close to what China has been doing lately in agricultural policy, suggesting that Xi (or the person who actually wrote the thesis) has a major say in policy or is at least in agreement with what's being done. There is nothing adventurous, controversial (or insightful) in the thesis. It seems to be the work of a wonkish technocrat who is not prone to talk out of turn or wander from...

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Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

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