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Communist Rule and the Food Security Situation

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Book cover Environmental Change and Food Security in China

Part of the book series: Advances in Global Change Research ((AGLO,volume 35))

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Abstract

Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a Leninist political organization leading a party-state, has ruled China. In this chapter we narrate the development of the planned economy in China, including agricultural growth targets, and then focus on the early choices of the regime, which influenced agricultural production: land reform and collectivization, the Great Leap Forward (1958–1960), and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, and a brief succession struggle, Deng Xiaoping assumed leadership of the party and state. Deng radically changed China’s economic development policy, opening the Chinese economy to competition and gradually engaging the Chinese marketplace with the world. The chapter also treats the current food system (focusing on production and use) in 2009, as well as changes in food choices in China.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Edward E. Rice, Mao’s Way. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1972, 120–35.

  2. 2.

    Stuart R. Schram, The Political Thought of Mao Tsetung. New York: Praeger, 1970, especially 294–330.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., 301–12.

  4. 4.

    See also Brantley Womack, ed., Contemporary Chinese Politics in Historical Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991; Roderick MacFarquhar, The Politics of China: Eras from Mao to Deng. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; and Tony Saich, Governance and Politics in China. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

  5. 5.

    Kang Chao, Agricultural Production in Communist China: 1949–1965. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1970, 14.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., 17–18.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., 24–26.

  8. 8.

    John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, 352–53.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 354, 356. Also see Jean Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of Village Government. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.

  10. 10.

    Fairbank and Goldman, 2006, 370.

  11. 11.

    Fairbank and Goldman, 2006, 371.

  12. 12.

    See Judith Shapiro, Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, ch. 2.

  13. 13.

    Fairbank and Goldman, 2006, 368.

  14. 14.

    For good studies of the Cultural Revolution, see Hong Yung Lee, The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: A Case Study. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978; Lowell Dittmer, Liu Shao-ch’i and the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Politics of Mass Criticism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974; Anita Chan, Richard Madsen, and Jonathan Unger, Chen Village: The Recent History of a Peasant Community in Mao’s China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984; and William A. Joseph, Christine P. W. Wong, and David Zweig, New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1991.

  15. 15.

    Shapiro, 2001, 129.

  16. 16.

    Shapiro, 2001, 147–53.

  17. 17.

    Deng’s reforms liberated the Chinese people from restrictions of classes and groups artificially created by Mao, and made them all productive members of society.

  18. 18.

    For an early analysis of the Four Modernizations, see Richard Baum, ed., China’s Four Modernizations: The New Technological Revolution. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1980.

  19. 19.

    Jean Oi notes that in the case of marginal lands – barren hills, slopes, ditches and beaches – lease rights could extend to 50 years or more. See Oi, “Two Decades of Rural Reform in China: An Overview and Assessment,” China Quarterly, 159 (September 1999), 619.

  20. 20.

    James Kai-sing Kung and Shouying Liu, “Farmers’ Preferences Regarding Ownership and Land Tenure in Post-Mao China: Unexpected Evidence from Eight Counties,” The China Journal, No. 38 (July 1997).

  21. 21.

    Tony Saich, Governance and Politics of China, 2nd edn. New York: Palgrave, 2004, 245–46.

  22. 22.

    This section is based on communications from the State Grain Administration, in 2007–2008, as well as a detailed interview with grain policy experts in the Development Research Center of the State Council, May 19, 2008.

  23. 23.

    Ibid.

  24. 24.

    Yali Guo, “Food Prices Push Up CPI, Say Analysts,” China Daily, May 3, 2007, 2.

  25. 25.

    Huanxin Zhao, “Ample Food Reserves Can Feed Market Needs,” China Daily, December 13, 2006, 1.

  26. 26.

    Rice prices are watched particularly closely. As international rice prices doubled in early 2008, Premier Wen Jiapao said: “China has an abundant supply of rice” and had stockpiles of 40–50 million tons. See: Jize Qin and Zhiming Xin, “World Rice Price Hikes ‘Will not hurt Supply,’” China Daily, April 1, 2008, 1. Also see: Diao Ying, “Cost of Rice ‘Stable’ in China,” China Daily, April 5–6, 2008, 10; and Qiwen Liang, “Claims of Grain Shortage Dismissed,” China Daily, April 15, 2008, 4.

  27. 27.

    Zhiming Xin, “Nation to Raise Purchase Prices for Grains,” China Daily, March 29–30, 2008, 10.

  28. 28.

    For discussion of grain reserves and their use in stabilizing prices in 2007 and 2008, see these Internet materials: “Chinese State Administration of Grain Refutes Empty Granary Rumor” at http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-05/08/content_8131350.htm (retrieved May 18, 2008); “China Says It Is Able to Maintain Stable Grain Supply and Price” at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05-06/content_8116728.htm (retrieved May 18, 2008); “Chinese Grain Reserves Sufficient” at http://news/xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05-05-content_8106686.htm (retrieved May 18, 2008); “China’s State-Owned Grain Companies Shrug Off Losses” at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/10/content_7586454.htm (retrieved May 18, 2008); and “Time to Reform China’s Grain Trade Management Regime” at http://www.caijing.com.cn/20050404/13819.shtml (retrieved May 18, 2008).

  29. 29.

    Xinhua, “Importing Inflation,” China Daily, May 19, 2008, 3.

  30. 30.

    Zhiming Xin, “Bumper Summer Crop on the Cards,” China Daily, June 18, 2007, 3. Also see, Xinhua, “Bumper Summer Harvest Expected,” China Daily, June 17, 2008, 4.

  31. 31.

    See Keith Bradsher, “High Rice Cost Creating Fears of Unrest,” New York Times, March 29, 2008, A5.

  32. 32.

    Jing Fu and Lan Wang, “Rising Prices Eating into Farmers’ Income,” China Daily, July 25, 2008, 2.

  33. 33.

    Jiao Wu, “Ample Grain to Keep Food Prices Stable,” China Daily, May 7, 2008, 1.

  34. 34.

    Personal interview with State Grain Administration official, Beijing, May 16, 2008.

  35. 35.

    Personal interview with grain policy expert, State Council Information office, Beijing, May 19, 2008.

  36. 36.

    See “Chinese State Administration of Grain Refutes Empty Granary Rumor,” http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-05/08/content-8131350.htm (retrieved May 18, 2008).

  37. 37.

    Samuel P. S. Ho and George C. S. Lin, “Non-Agricultural Land Use in Post-Reform China,” China Quarterly, 179 (September 2004), 764.

  38. 38.

    Max Lu, “Changes in China’s Space Economy Since the Reform,” in Chiao-min Hsieh and Max Lu, eds., Changing China: A Geographic Appraisal. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004, 116.

  39. 39.

    See Elizabeth Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004, 210.

  40. 40.

    Chenggui Li and Hongchun Wang, “China’s Food Security and International Trade,” China & World Economy (November 4, 2002), 33.

  41. 41.

    Xinhua, “Stabilize Grain Supply,” China Daily, April 30, 2008, 8.

  42. 42.

    Bian Kou, “Foreign-funded Banks Land in Chinese Market,” Beijing Review, December 29, 1997–January 4, 1998, 15–16.

  43. 43.

    See Guangsheng Shi, Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, “Remarks at the Reception Hosted by EU-China Business Association and Belgium Chinese Economic and Commercial Council,” December 9, 2002, cited in Rex Li, “Security Challenge of an Ascendant China,” in Suisheng Zhao, ed., Chinese Foreign Policy: Pragmatism and Strategic Behavior. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004, 38.

  44. 44.

    Nicholas R. Lardy, China in the World Economy. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1994, 303, and Li, 2004, 38.

  45. 45.

    Xinhua, “Forex Reserves Drop for First Time since 2003,” China Daily, December 12, 2008, 1.

  46. 46.

    Saich, 2004, 250–51.

  47. 47.

    This section relies extensively on E. N. Anderson, The Food of China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988, 137–81.

  48. 48.

    See http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang+en&item27&year=2005, retrieved March 11, 2008.

  49. 49.

    See: http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&item=15&year=2005, retrieved March 11, 2008.

  50. 50.

    Genpan Li, China’s Ancient Agriculture (in Chinese). Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Press, 1994, 58.

  51. 51.

    See http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&item=56&year=2005, retrieved March 11, 2008.

  52. 52.

    Jiao Wu, “Industrial Demand for Corn Increasing,” China Daily, April 10, 2007, 1.

  53. 53.

    Dingding Xin, “Corn Output Reaches Record High,” China Daily, March 13, 2007, 2.

  54. 54.

    Chuanjiao Xie, “Ethanol Output has Corn Prices Popping,” China Daily, December 6, 2006, 1.

  55. 55.

    See Xiaohua Sun, “Non-Staple Crops New Source for Ethanol,” China Daily, June 13, 2007, 14; Tian Le, “Ban on Use of Corn for Ethanol Lauded,” China Daily, June 22, 2007, 2; Xiaohua Sun, “Corn Won’t Be Used for Biofuel in 5 Yrs.” China Daily, July 17, 2007, 1; and Zhuoqiong Wang, “Biofuel Expert Allays Food-Shortage Worries,” China Daily, October 12, 2007, 3. Agriculture minister Sun Zhengcai concluded this discussion by stating: “China will never develop biofuels at the cost of grain supplies or arable land.” Jiao Wu, “Food Before Biofuels,” China Daily, May 19, 2008, 3.

  56. 56.

    Xinhua, “Bio-fuel Makers to Get Subsidy,” China Daily, December 8–9, 2007, 1, 2.

  57. 57.

    See http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&item=79&year=2005 and http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&item=83&year=2005, retrieved March 18, 2008.

  58. 58.

    Li, 1994, 102.

  59. 59.

    See Qingbin Wang and Wei Zhang, “China’s Potato Industry and Potential Impacts on the Global Market,” American Journal of Potato Research, Vol. 18 (Mar/Apr 2004), 101–09.

  60. 60.

    Weifeng Liu, “Potato Could Rival Rice, Expert Says,” China Daily, October 11, 2007, 4; and Xinhua, “Potato Seen as Viable Alternative,” China Daily, August 15, 2007, 5.

  61. 61.

    See “Soybeans and Oil Crops: Market Outlook,” at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/soybeansoilcrops/2008baseline.htm; retrieved June 24, 2008.

  62. 62.

    Shaolian Liao, “Food Production in China,” in Aileen S.P. Baviera, Shaolian Liao, and Clarissa V. Militante, Food Security in China & Southeast Asia. Manila, Philippines: Phlippine-China Development Resource Center, 1999.

  63. 63.

    Peter Oosterveer, Global Governance of Food Production and Consumption: Issues and Challenges. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007, 3.

  64. 64.

    Jiao Wu, “Overseas Food not China’s Staple,” China Daily, April 26, 2007, 3.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 11.

  66. 66.

    Edward Anderson, “Annex 4: Food Security in China,” in Gerard J. Gill, John Farrington, Edward Anderson, Cecilia Luttrell, Tim Conway, N.C. Saxena and Rachel Slater, Food Security and the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger in Asia. London: Overseas Development Institute, Working Paper 231, December 2003, 1.

  67. 67.

    Saich, 2004, 248.

  68. 68.

    Saich, 2004, 298.

  69. 69.

    World Bank, From Poor Areas to Poor People: China’s Evolving Poverty Reduction Agenda. March, 2009, iii.

  70. 70.

    Saich, 2004, 300.

  71. 71.

    This discussion follows Azizur Rahman Khan and Carl Riskin, “China’s Household Income and Its Distribution, 1995 and 2002,” China Quarterly, 182 (June 2005), 356–84.

  72. 72.

    A 2007 report by CASS listed China’s Gini coefficient at 0.496. The institute’s data showed that the richest 10 percent of Chinese households owned more than 40 percent of private assets; the poorest 10 percent, on the other hand, controlled less than 1 percent. Cited in Robert Ash, “Quarterly Chronicle,” China Quarterly, 190 (June 2007), 537.

  73. 73.

    Khan and Riskin, 2005, 358.

  74. 74.

    Khan and Riskin, 2005, 383–84.

  75. 75.

    Erik Nilsson, “Hunger for the West,” China Daily, June 20, 2007, 20.

  76. 76.

    Raymond A. Jussaume Jr., “Factors Associated with Modern Urban Chinese Food Consumption Patterns,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 10, no. 27 (May 2001), 229.

  77. 77.

    Nuo You and Jiao Wu, “Looking Behind the Global Food Crisis,” China Daily, July 29, 2008, 8.

  78. 78.

    For additional information on China’s nutritional transition, see Barry M. Popkin et al., “The Nutrition Transition in China: A Cross-Sectional Analysis,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 47 (1993), 333–46; Du et al., “A New Stage of the Nutrition Transition in China,” Public Health Nutrition (Vol. 5(1A) (2002), 169–74; and Vaclav Smil, “Feeding China,” Current History, Vol. 94, no. 593 (1995), 280–84.

  79. 79.

    Observations of the authors. Also, see F. J. Simmons, Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry. New York: CRC Press, 1991; and Hsin-Hui Hsu, Wen S. Chen, and Fred Gale, “How Will Rising Income Affect the Structure of Demand,” in Fred Gale, ed., China’s Food and Agriculture: Issues for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: USDA Economic Research Service, 2002, 10–13.

  80. 80.

    Jussaume, 2001, 232.

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  1. University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Jenifer Huang McBeath & Jerry McBeath

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Correspondence to Jenifer Huang McBeath .

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McBeath, J.H., McBeath, J. (2010). Communist Rule and the Food Security Situation. In: Environmental Change and Food Security in China. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 35. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9180-3_2

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