A Chinese government official has touted the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping’s efforts to promote food security even as a recent report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has raised concerns about China’s interests in the U.S. agriculture.
Zhang Meifang promoted Xi’s strategy toward food security in China in a post on Twitter.
“President Xi Jinping has highlighted the important role of the nation's grain growers, calling on them to boost operations, make greater and more effective use of modern agricultural technology and contribute to ensuring China's food security,” Meifang said in the tweet on June 29.
However, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s May 26 Staff Research Report, “China’s Interests in U.S. Agriculture: Augmenting Food Security through Investment Abroad,” reviews how “China’s food security challenges … drive interests in U.S.-China agricultural relations,” particularly in regard to Chinese investment in the U.S.
“The China Academy of Social Sciences’ 2020 Rural Development Institute report claimed ‘there is likely to be a grain shortfall of about 130 mmt, including about 25 mmt of staple food grain’ by the end of 2025,” the report said.
China's food-security issues stem from a combination of shifting demographics, decreasing arable land and natural disasters, the report said. Since Xi was elected president in March 2013, he has focused on introducing policies that bolster China's food security and reduce food waste. Xi also has worked to expand domestic farming and attain new agricultural technologies, including genetically modified seeds.
However, the domestic efforts have not been enough, so Xi has been looking internationally for solutions to China's problems, the report said. Since the U.S. is a global leader in fields such as animal husbandry and intellectual property related to GM seeds, Xi has targeted the U.S., presenting risks to American economic and food security.
Although almost 20% of the global population lives in China, the country possesses only 7% to 9% of global arable land, the report said. Whereas China had 294 million acres of arable land in 2018 and a population of 1.4 billion as of 2020, the U.S. has over 375 million acres of arable land and a population of 329.5 million.
China's arable land has been shrinking over the last decade due to soil and water pollution, industrial growth and urbanization. As a result, the Chinese have been purchasing American farmland. Fufeng Group, which has ties to the Chinese government, recently purchased 370 acres of land in North Dakota, about 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base.
“(Grand Forks Air Force Base) … houses some of the United States’ top intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities,” the report said. “The location of the land close to the base is particularly convenient for monitoring air traffic flows in and out of the base, among other security-related concerns.”
At the beginning of 2020, Chinese owners controlled nearly 200,000 acres of U.S. farmland, worth approximately $1.9 billion, Politico reported. The CCP has a goal of controlling its food supply chain, which has led to Chinese purchases of companies such as pork-processor Smithfield Foods.
Founded in Smithfield, Virginia, in 1936, Smithfield Foods Inc. was purchased in 2013 by “Shuanghui International Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of the Chinese company WH Group (formerly Shuanghui Group),” the report said. WH Group is backed by the Chinese government. The largest U.S. pork producer, Smithfield has helped China protect itself against volatility in its food supply, sending “record amounts of pork” to China in 2020. China produces and consumes more than half of the world's pork supply every year.
“The company gained more than 146,000 acres in the acquisition, which are mostly concentrated in North Carolina, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, Colorado and Oklahoma,” the report said. “These states host Smithfield’s hog farms, processing plants and feed mills, among other things.”
The report offered things for Congress to consider, among them that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has lax reporting requirements for foreign ownership of American farmland, raising concerns about the CCP falsely reporting land data or not reporting it at all. There’s also concern that the CCP could weaponize GM seeds, using the code to create bioweapons. Additionally, if China continues its expansion into U.S. agribusiness, the CCP could gain control over the U.S. food supply chain.
