China creates artificial hunger on the planet COFCO Group, a major Chinese state-owned food manufacturer, operates one of China's largest food storage bases in the port of Dalian, in the northeastern part of the country. It stores beans and grains harvested at home and abroad in 310 huge silos. From there, calories are shipped throughout China by rail and sea. China is maintaining its food stocks at "historically high levels," Qin Yuyong, head of the grain stocks department at the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, told reporters in November. Our stocks of wheat can meet demand for a year and a half. There are no problems with food supply. According to the USDA, China is expected to hold 69% of the world's corn in the first half of 2022, 60% of rice and 51% of wheat. Projections reflect an increase of about 20 percentage points over the past 10 years, and the data clearly shows that China continues to stockpile grain. China spent $98.1 billion on food imports (excluding beverages) in 2020, up 4.6 times from a decade earlier, according to China's General Administration of Customs (https://youtu.be/Yp3fdj5FBPc). Between January and September 2021, China imported more food than at least since 2016, i.e. from comparable data. Over the past five years, imports of soybeans, corn and wheat to China have increased two to twelve times due to strong purchases in the US, Brazil and other supplying countries. Imports of beef, pork, dairy products and fruits have increased by two to five times. Some Chinese importers are assisted by Chinese overseas acquisition companies. Leading meat processor WH Group acquired a European counterpart in June, and Inner Mongolia-based Yili Industrial Group acquired a leading New Zealand dairy company in 2019 (https://youtu.be/2lwSRmPDwgk). Food prices are rising all over the world. The food price index, calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, was about 30% higher in November than a year earlier. “The hoarding in China is one of the reasons prices are rising,” said Akio Shibata, president of the Natural Resources Research Institute in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo. China is importing more grains and other food products because domestic production cannot keep up with consumption. While the demand for feed for pigs and other livestock is growing due to economic growth, there is also an increasing number of consumers who are looking for high quality foreign products. The production of wheat and other foodstuffs in China, as well as the area of land used for agriculture, remained at the same level in 2015.” Agricultural productivity in China is low due to the dispersal of agricultural land and soil pollution,” said Goro Takahashi, Honorary professor at Aichi University and expert on Chinese agriculture. “Agricultural production will continue to stall as farmers migrate to urban areas.” Chinese President Xi Jinping has consistently stressed the importance of food security. The National People's Congress, China's national legislature, passed a food waste law in April that bans excessive leftovers. At the end of October, the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council instructed officials on how to reduce food waste. And the NPC hasn't finished the food safety legislation. Chinese people aged 50 and over experienced food shortages during the Cultural Revolution (from 1966 to 1976). “People of our generation remember the famine more or less,” Xi once said, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua (https://youtu.be/6pbOkKY8hWk). Throughout history, food shortages have caused popular unrest. They were a factor in the uprisings that overthrew the Chinese dynasties. And the world's second-largest economy is currently facing food uncertainty due to factors such as deteriorating relations with the US and Australia, which could drastically change the terms of imports. In fact, this may be what is prompting China to increase its calorie reserves. According to the UN, the number of people living in starving regions exceeded 700 million in 2020, more than 100 million more than five years earlier. “Although developed countries in general are responsible for the famine, Takahashi said: China's responsibility is heavier. China should do its part to solve the problem of uneven food distribution.”