China has many sorrows of natural
disasters. The rise of China reduces many of them and hopefully in the coming
decade, they will be memories. According to me, China’s priorities are food,
shelter, job, living conditions (air, water, quality of food, health care…), protection
from natural disasters, corruption, human rights…
China has ample housing, so it is
not a major problem now. China is spending her effort in improving the living
conditions. From the last decade, China can take care of herself from natural
disasters such earthquakes and flooding disasters.
If it is not used for taking out
political enemies, President Xi has accomplished a lot in suppressing
corruption. Corruption is so widely spread and could be part of the culture, so
it is not a small task. Compared to 30 years ago, human rights have been
improved by leaps and bounds.
For the last 250 years, food has
always been a problem. Today no Chinese starves to death, but it is a long way
to compare to developed countries. The rich is literally eating all the better
food produced by the world. I used to have a twin lobsters for $15 in many
Chinese restaurants in Boston a couple of years ago and now it costs $35.
Literally they fly or swim over to China. The poor countries suffer as more
food is distributed to China compared to 25 years ago. About 25 years ago, I
ate rice in China that had been in the stockpile for 5 years. It tasted bad.
China has 7% of the world’s
arable land but 19% of the world population. That’s why China needed the ‘one-child
policy’ while India’s huge population would eat all the limited food resources.
The younger population will not help India as expected by many experts.
Coupled with the problem of few
arable land per capita, China’s crop yields are poor compared to developed
countries. Chinese farmers use too much fertilizers and chemicals that pollute
the soil and land. The government banned GMO seeds with political reasons. As a
result China is behind in GMO seed development which is important.
The industrial advances lead to
migration of farmers to cities leaving the elderly farming the land. Many farm
lands are also polluted by industrial wastes. China should encourage and subsidize
farming for many reasons.
China today depends too heavily
on farm products from S.E. Asia, US and Australia. It leads to the security to
protect the import from her neighbors. Carries and a stronger blue water navy
have been being developed for this purpose besides invading Taiwan.
A big drought or a big flood
could starve her citizens and escalate to riots against the government. Most
Chinese villages have electricity and basic machines/tractors. They also have
good roads/railroads compared to most developing countries. They have adequate
education on farming technology and management.
It is NOT enough! China
government bit the bullet by letting ChemChina to acquire Syngenta, a Swiss
company and a world leader in insecticides, herbicides and the No. 3 producer
of seeds. It costs China $43 billion and far more expensive than her second
largest acquisition of Nexen at $15 billion.
It makes a lot of sense in the
cost (though huge by any standard) and benefit. China may not be able to buy a
US company due to our congress on security reason. Technology transfer is too
restricted, too little and too late.
Overnight, China becomes one of
the top three companies in this sector. It bought the global market share too
beside the benefit for feeding the world population including China. It will
provide better food quality required by her wealthier citizens. With the
commitment and huge pool of Chinese scientists, China will catch up fast. It
looks great for China and the world. Today China does help many poor countries
especially in Africa on farming.
Links
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The above is from my book "Can China Say No?". Click here for more info in Amazon.com.
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