China’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Purged by Disciplinary Watchdog

The dismissed minister had promoted genetically modified crops and ‘rural enforcement’

Farmers harvesting wheat in a field in Huaian, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on June 2, 2023. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Tang Renjian, Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, was reportedly dismissed for “serious disciplinary violations,” The fall of the heavy hitters in the agricultural sector highlights the volatile political climate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced on May 18 that Mr. Tang has been under investigation.

The 61-year-old’s last public appearance was three days ago, on May 15, when he made a speech at a national rural conference in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province.

Since April, the CCDI inspection team has been stationed in the agriculture and rural apartments to conduct a three-month probe until July. Mr. Tang was the first and highest-ranking senior official to be ousted in the agriculture sector this year.

Wang Juntao, U.S.-based Chinese dissident and chairman of the China Democracy Party, told The Epoch Times on May 20 that the CCP is scrutinizing its senior officials one by one, previously targeting the financial and military systems and now turning to the agricultural sector.

Mr. Wang said that the inspection team assigned by the Central Committee mainly looked into the political loyalty and corruption of cadres. “If the official is found to be involved in a power struggle, for example, if his factional affiliation was not seen before but is now recognized, he will be taken down.”

“Once a certain department becomes the target of an inspection, a group of senior officials will often get into trouble.” Mr. Wang said, indicating that there could be more officials purged following the head of the agricultural and rural sector.

For decades, Mr. Tang has been a stalwart in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Finance and Economy Leadership Group and a key architect in shaping policies concerning “agriculture, rural areas, and peasants.”

In 2020, he was elevated to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, unleashing his pivotal role in pumping genetically modified (GM) crops and administration in the countryside.

Genetically Modified Crops in China

During Mr. Tang’s term in office in 2021, agricultural authorities launched a pilot project for the industrialization of GM corn and GM soybeans. By 2023, the scope of the pilot program had been extended to 20 counties in provinces like Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Sichuan, and Yunnan, with seed production assigned to Gansu Province.

According to an announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Dec. 25, 2023, 26 companies were approved for GM crop seed production and operation licenses.

The move is part of the CCP’s attempt to boost crop production and ease the country’s food shortage crisis.

A vendor picks up corn at her stall in a market in Beijing on Dec. 2, 2009. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

GM foods are widely recognized as detrimental to human health for allegedly disrupting the immune system in animals, causing infertility, and accelerating aging. In May 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine strongly advised the public not to eat GM foods.

The Chinese authorities have spared no effort to promote GM products into the Chinese people’s food chain. While the privileged class enjoys exceptionally grown food, GM food is strictly prohibited from reaching the dinner tables of senior officials.

In addition, as one of the CCP’s usual means of misleading the international public, stringent tests on GM food were carried out at some of the prestigious competitions held in China, such as the Beijing Olympic Games, the Shanghai World Expo, and the Guangzhou Asian Games, with the official claim that they ensured the food safety of foreign guests.

It is noteworthy that some genetically modified foods have been exported China to countries.

On Oct. 11, 2021, the Russian regulatory authorities issued an order to suspend the importation of certain foodstuffs from China, such as cornstarch, cornmeal, cornflakes, chocolate eggs, and desserts. According to the official statement, corn and soybean genetically modified DNA were detected in these Chinese food products, and the prohibited levels in some samples exceeded the standards by a factor of four.

‘Rural Enforcement’

Chinese police in a scuffle with some 400 disgruntled farmers, who took one official hostage and attacked law enforcement workers seeking to demolish their makeshift homes in southern China's Shenzhen city on May 20, 2004. STR/AFP via Getty Images

The extreme brutality of rural law enforcement has long been a source of public discontent and conflict in rural areas. For example, in recent years, cases have arisen in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Guangxi, and the three northeastern provinces about enforcement agents depriving farmers of livestock and other materials, cutting down fruit and trees, and destroying crops.

In this regard, Mr. Wang believes that the CCP’s political cleansing of the agricultural and rural sectors could also be linked to the intensification of local conflicts affecting its rule.

Since 2018, the CCP has been organizing a rural enforcement team. At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development claimed it would formally implement a so-called “Rural Enforcement” as of Jan. 1, 2023, and set up enforcement agencies in agricultural and rural departments across the country.

According to an article published in April 2023 on the Chinese portal site NetEase, there are 2,564 agricultural administrative and law enforcement agencies across China, with over 82,000 law enforcement officers.

Xin Ning contributed to this report.