Chinese leader Xi Jinping has just gone on the record pointing out a huge issue China has. They get most of their food from outside of the country and we are one of their primary providers.
“Chinese Communist officials have struggled to feed the country for decades, particularly during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, which caused a famine that killed an estimated 30 million people from 1959 to 1961. Xi alluded to “the time of no grain” but cast the memory as motivation to fortify national security against external threats.
“I have repeatedly said Chinese people’s rice bowls should be firmly held in our own hands, never let others take us by the throat on eating, which is a basic survival issue,” Xi told a recent conference of Chinese economic officials.
“You have a very aggressive, self-confident leader, now going into a third term, declaring this a national security issue,” observed Evan Ellis, an expert on China’s engagement with Latin America at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. “The significance is really the tone and a claim that Xi is making, rather than a change in policy.”
“To Xi’s point, an overwhelming percentage of Chinese food imports originates in the U.S. or from close U.S. allies. China’s top five food suppliers in 2017 were Brazil, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”
So this means that China is all bark at the moment and is likely trying to bring awareness to this issue. China needs to be far more self-sufficient if they are going to try and wage war with the world over a small island.
So we just have to watch out and make sure China doesn’t start stockpiling food. If they do, it could mean they are getting ready to invade Taiwan and fight us.