The Chinese regime claims China has the world’s largest grain reserves, but dishonest government warehouse operators leave a big question mark over the state of the country’s food security.
To achieve food security to feed 1.4 billion people, state-run food companies fill warehouses with grain purchased from local farmers at a low price, which the government subsidizes. On paper, the policy protects farmers financially and encourages them to produce grain.
In recent years, China has also started importing large quantities of grain as rampant pollution has shrunk the amount of arable land.
The food policy seems to have worked—in March, Han Jun, the deputy head of the Communist Party’s financial and economics affairs group, claims that China “built up the world’s largest stock” of grain—cotton reserves stand at 60 percent (11.3 million tons) of the world’s total last year, and corn at about 40 percent of the global stock, or eight months of local consumption.
