Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

This year dozens of agricultural officials have come to China to talk about cooperation. A compilation of news reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs web site shows 29 meetings with foreign dignitaries (full list below), mostly visits with Minister Tang Renjian in Beijing, but also including Vice Minister Ma Youxiang's trip to the western pacific and Australia, regional meetings of Southeast Asian and Pacific Island nations hosted in China, a meeting with Russia on fishing, and a meeting with Latin American diplomats to show off Chinese technology at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.  China's new friends include many developing countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa. Pacific Islands--Samoa, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati--are well represented, reflecting China's hunger for fish, ambitions to control the Pacific right up to Australia's doorstep, and rewards for switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. C...

An "American food hegemony" (美国粮食霸权) narrative seems to be creeping into official Chinese communist doctrine as Chinese leaders look to create an external enemy--probably to divert attention from their own mistakes on covid, ill-considered support for Russia's Ukraine invasion, soaring debt and youth unemployment.  An October 2022 Economic Daily commentary asserted that, "The shadow of the United States has been behind every global food crisis," and accused the U.S. of being the "black hand behind the scenes" in the current "global food crisis."  According to the narrative, the United States disingenuously promotes free trade in agricultural goods while abusing its monopoly power to create global food crises in 1978, 2008 and 2022 in order to cement its dominance and control over other countries.  Pieces of the food hegemony story have been rattling around in China for two decades and are now being formed into a standard narrative. Elements...