Glacier FarmMedia – Chinese President Xi Jinping might want to be independent of foreign food imports, but it will likely never be, says a noted China expert.
“It will be very hard for him to realize, especially in the agricultural arena, where China has such a small percentage of arable land,” said Elizabeth Economy, a China scholar and adviser to the United States Department of Commerce.
“It has constrained water resources. It is never going to be agriculturally self-sufficient.”
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Economy was speaking with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Outlook Forum February 23.
“We believe we can sell more (to China,)” said Vilsack about agricultural goods. “We believe there’s a demand that continues to grow in that country.”
U.S. agricultural exports to China slumped in 2018 when the U.S. had a trade war with China, but last year exports tripled from that low level.
“Farmers in China will continue to face a series of challenges and they’re going to need the partnership with the U.S.,” said Vilsack.
Economy painted a picture of China as a rising power expecting to be treated as a global power, and working actively to export its authoritarian values and development model around the world, in competition with countries like the U.S.
That will be a challenge to the rule-of-law nations that have dominated development of international norms for decades. However, Economy sounded optimistic that the U.S. had time to rally like-minded nations to protect the open world order.
“Very few countries would say that China has proved itself as ready to lead on the global stage,” said Economy.
Vilsack said the U.S. needs to reduce its reliance upon the Chinese market, even as it hopes to continue making heavy sales into it.
“It is absolutely imperative that we diversify beyond just China, that we look for ways in which Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, there are enormous opportunities in those markets as well,” said Vilsack.
“We don’t want to be overly dependent on any one market.”
– This article was originally published at The Western Producer.
