Chinese Minister Restarts U.S. Cooperation

China's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian met U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Washington January 18 to resume the Joint Committee on Cooperation in Agriculture (JCCA), a forum for discussing exchanges between the United States and China that had been dormant since 2015. During the same trip Tang also visited Mexico and the Dominican Republic to discuss closer agricultural exchanges with developing countries on the U.S. doorstep.

Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian
met U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack January 18. Source: China MARA.

In the official USDA news release about his meeting with Minister Tang, Secretary Vilsack emphasized China's role as an export market, noting that he discussed market access issues with Minister Tang and expressed hope that the bilateral relationship will expand and improve market access opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers in China. The USDA statement also said discussion included "tackling climate and food security challenges" and sustainable agricultural systems. 

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' Chinese language web site features an article about the Washington meeting with more detail and a more positive spin than the USDA statement. According to the Chinese article, Minister Tang endorsed the JCCA as a channel for promoting bilateral exchange and promised to "cherish, care for, and operate this mechanism in a stable manner." The description of Tang's comments was more expansive than the USDA statement, calling the restarting of the JCCA "after a 9-year hiatus" as a "landmark event in the history of Sino-US agricultural relations." The Chinese statement pledged that China was willing to work with the U.S. to "pragmatically promote China-U.S. cooperation to take new steps and work together to stabilize food and agricultural development."

The Chinese article mentioned that Minister Tang brought up "climate smart agriculture," food security, and "people to people exchanges" (all favorite topics of Xi Jinping) in the discussion, while Secretary Vilsack brought up trade facilitation. According to the Chinese account the two sides agreed to establish working groups on food security, nutrition and health. 

The Chinese account also reveals that Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng attended the meeting, Tang held afternoon meetings with U.S. commercial groups, and Tang requested a meeting with the U.S. Trade Representative's chief agriculture negotiator.  

The Washington meeting was out of step with China's agricultural diplomacy since last year which has featured a stream of meetings with developing countries where Chinese officials pledged aid and cooperation as a fellow "developing country" to build relations based on a shared importance of agriculture and rural poverty alleviation. It's also unusual for the Chinese agriculture minister to travel abroad. 

Before arriving in Washington Minister Tang made visits to Mexico and the Dominican Republic that were squarely in line with China's agricultural diplomacy strategy. On January 11, Minister Tang met his Mexican counterpart for the 7th meeting of an agricultural working group under a China-Mexico Intergovernmental Standing committee where they discussed climate smart agriculture, food security and promoting rural prosperity. Tang praised growth in China-Mexico trade of agricultural commodities. The article twice mentioned another Xi Jinping favorite, "Agricultural Cultural Heritage." Reflecting China's S&T interests, Tang pointed to exchanges of germplasm and biotechnology research as achievements in China-Mexico cooperation and he visited the International Corn and Maize Improvement Center and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Institute in Mexico. 

Minister Tang met Mexican ag minister January 11 in Mexico City.
Source: MARA web site.

During his January 14-15 visit to the Dominican Republic Tang scored a meeting with the President and held bilateral talks with the Dominican ag minister. Here the Chinese article mentions the "Belt and Road" framework for developing agricultural relations and discussed rice and tropical crops, two favorite crops for China's agricultural diplomacy with developing countries. There were discussions of launching a bilateral agricultural cooperation mechanism between China and the Dominican Republic.

Tang did not visit neighboring Haiti, which is one of a dozen countries that still has diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Tang also bypassed old Chinese friend, Cuba, on his North American journey. 

Tang's visits to Mexico, Dominican Republic and the United States were all described in articles on the Chinese language web site of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The English version of the site featured only the visit to Mexico with no mention of the trip to the United States.