The rice bowls of the Chinese people must be firmly in our own hands. Our rice bowls should be filled mainly by Chinese crops.
— Speech given by Xi Jinping at the Central Rural Work Conference, December 23-24, 2013
The Rice Bowls of the Chinese People Must Be Held by Themselves
--Ensuring food security and social stability
The rice bowl is indispensable in our daily lives, as we all have to eat. Xi Jinping used the humble rice bowl to illustrate just how important food security is to a large, developing country such as China. Food production has remained high for many years, yet that is all the more reason for us to remain vigilant about food security.
Chinese people often say, "Grain in the lamer sets minds at rest," and "A bumper crop bestows happiness on the land." Food is a top priority in China, a country with a population of more than 1.3 billion people. Without a secure food supply, social stability and national development would not even be part of the conversation. In China, food security may be called the ballast stone that keeps social stability and national development on an even keel.
China cannot allow the recent, steady gains we have achieved in grain production to lull us into a false sense of security. We should not forget about the suffering caused by previous famines just because we have managed to recover. Rather, we should recognize that the issue of food security is a red line that would trigger terrible consequences were it ever to be compromised. The famine years of the early 1960s were not so long ago, and little more than twenty years have passed since the last of the food ration coupons were issued. Memories of those days have been etched into the hearts of many and should serve as a reminder to us all. That is the reason the CPC Central Committee has made the "three rural issues" and food production top priorities to ensure China's food security.
There have been suggestions that food security is simply an economic issue: Food shortages can be addressed through trade on the international market in today's globalized world. Yet, this is a dangerous view. A quick look around the globe reveals that countries with stable societies are invariably those that maintain self-sufficiency in food. Those that are unable to produce enough to feed their own people suffer from domestic unrest and foreign pressure. The market economy enables us to increase food imports in order to adjust — to a certain degree — the agricultural structure and accelerate the modernization of our agricultural industry. We should never ease up on domestic food production. Depending on other nations to ensure our food security is not a viable option.
In the mid-1990s, the American scholar Lester Brown stirred up international controversy when he asked, "Who will feed China?" The core of his argument maintained that continued rapid industrialization would force China to rely heavily on food imports. He argued that China's inability to produce enough food to satisfy domestic demand would trigger a global food crisis.
Twenty years later, the government and people of China have proven Mr. Brown wrong. Not only have we achieved rapid economic development, we have become almost entirely self-sufficient in food production. This remarkable feat has greatly contributed to world peace and development. It is a retort to those in the West who may be biased against China.
China is experiencing rapid development and people's living standards are improving. The mix of food is changing. Demand for food is further expanding. We should never say that we have produced enough grain or allow our vigilance about food security to wane.
As the very foundation of agricultural production, arable land must be protected if China is to ensure food security. We must hold fast to the central government's decision to maintain "1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land and 1.6 billion mu (107 million hectares) of land for grain growing." We must implement the regulations and policies that the central authorities have instituted to resolve the "three rural issues," and enhance our input in support of those policies.
A strong China cannot exist without a robust agricultural industry. A beautiful China cannot exist without a bustling countryside. A rich China cannot exist without prosperous rural communities. Only when these conditions have been met will the rice bowls of all Chinese people be firmly, steadily, and contentedly in their own hands.
(An excerpt from XI JINPING: WIT AND VISION SELECTED QUOTATIONS AND COMMENTARY, published by FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS in 2015)
