The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China on Monday published a white paper titled "Food Security in China."
Food Security in China
The State Council Information Office of
the People's Republic of China
October 2019
Contents
I. China's Achievements in Ensuring Food Security
III. Opening Up and International Cooperation
Preamble
The people are the foundation of a country; food is the primary need of the people. As food decides national prosperity and the people's wellbeing, food security is a major prerequisite for national security. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, China has always prioritized food security in state governance. Despite a weak agricultural foundation and extreme poverty, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led an unremitting campaign of hard work over the past 70 years that has made China basically self-sufficient in food supply. China now has enough food to feed its nearly 1.4 billion population, and has remarkably improved the people's nutrition and life quality. China's food security is a success of worldwide significance.
Since the CPC's 18th National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core has treated food security as a top state issue. The central leadership has introduced a food security policy of "ensuring basic self-sufficiency of grain and absolute security of staple food". The Chinese government has established a national strategy on food security featuring self-sufficiency based on domestic grain production, guaranteed food production capacity, moderate imports, and technological support. Abiding by the principle of basic food self-sufficiency based on domestic grain production, China practices the strictest farmland protection system and a strategy of sustainable farmland use and innovative application of agricultural technology to increase farmland productivity. Through supply-side structural reform and institutional innovation in agriculture, China has raised grain productivity, modernized grain circulation, improved food-supply structure, and achieved steady development in the grain industry. Step by step, China has established a food security guarantee system at a very high level characterized by quality, efficiency and sustainability. China's food security has a stronger guarantee, along a steadier and wider path with Chinese characteristics.
Food security is an essential guarantee for world peace and development, a significant foundation for a global community of shared future, and an influential factor for the development and future of humanity. As the world's largest developing country, and a major country that shoulders its responsibilities, China has always been a positive force in safeguarding world food security. China has been an active part of global food security governance, enhancing international exchanges and cooperation, supporting the multilateral trade system, and implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this sense, China has made a positive contribution to improving global food security and promoting common development.
The Chinese government is publishing this white paper to provide a full picture of how food security operates in China, in order to increase the international community's understanding in this important field.