Farmland protection and upgrades, food supply diversification, science and technology, disaster prevention and recovery, and preventing poor areas from falling back into poverty were the "clear requirements" ordered by Xi Jinping for 2024 at China's "rural work meeting" for 2024 held last month in Beijing. Xi Jinping's effort to present himself as Mao's successor can be detected in the meeting's revivals of Mao-era approaches to reconfiguring the countryside and keeping it under control. The meeting celebrated "overcoming" "serious" natural disasters last year, producing another record grain crop, rapid income growth for farmers, and harmonious, stable rural society. That probably means none of those things actually happened and communist leaders are worried that the countryside could spin out of control. Working for food self-sufficiency was a clear theme. The meeting demanded that officials at all levels pledge to prevent farml...
Retired USDA economist Fred Gale peers through the "dim sums" of puzzling data to provide insight about China's agricultural markets in bite-size pieces like Chinese "dim sum" snacks. See the Archive and Labels for posts on various topics going back to 2008.