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Sino File | As the coronavirus disrupts food supply chains, who will feed China?
- China’s rulers have long seen the stable and sufficient supply of food as the most critical issue in maintaining political, social and economic stability
- With Covid-19 slowing down the production and movement of foodstuffs, the memory of the great famine of 1959-1961 lingers
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There is a Chinese idiom, “food is the god of the people”, that speaks volumes about the utmost significance of feeding the world’s most populous nation.
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Since ancient times, China’s rulers have seen the stable and sufficient supply of food as the most critical issue in maintaining political, social and economic stability in the Middle Kingdom – and thus their legitimacy of rule.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the global food supply and could bring about a food crisis if governments fail to manage the challenge well, as warned by the heads of three global agencies – the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation.
Emerging economies with large populations, just like China, are particularly vulnerable to such a crisis.
The coronavirus is making it harder to grow food not only in China but also around the world, as lockdowns and travel restrictions cause labour shortages in the farming sector. Logistics disruptions have broken supply chains and severely obstructed the flow of food to China, the world’s largest food consumer and importer.
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