U.S. Farmers Likely among Hardest Hit by Chinese Tariffs
China's retaliatory tariffs may hit farmers harder than any other group.
Why China Could Get Hurt More from a Trade War in the Tech Sector
China could lose more than the U.S. from trade tensions now spilling into the technology sector, according to Gavin Parry from Parry Global Group.
Conversation
03.02.18
How Will Trump’s Tariffs Affect U.S.-China Relations?
Arguing that America is harmed by other countries’ trade practices, President Donald Trump said on March 1 that the U.S. will impose a new 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum. “People have no idea how...
China Opens Inquiry into U.S. Sorghum as Trade Tensions Worsen
China has opened an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into U.S. sorghum imports, the latest salvo in an escalating trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
Green Gold: How China Quietly Grew into a Cannabis Superpower
Every year in April, Jiang Xingquan sets aside part of his farm in northern China to grow cannabis. The size of the plot varies with market demand but over the last few years it has been about 600 hectares.
Larry Summers: Trump’s ‘China Deal’ Is Only a Good Deal for China
It is true that a ludicrously hyped squib of a deal is much better than a trade war. So perhaps we should be pleased that the president and his commerce secretary are so easily manipulated. Perhaps our officials know how bad a deal they got and...
Ordinary Citizens Are Hoping to Make a Difference at China’s Biggest Political Meet-Up
China’s “two sessions” kicks off this week, bringing together all of the movers and shakers from the top echelons of government for the nation’s two big annual political shindigs.
China Reports First Two Human Deaths from Bird Flu This Winter
Two people in China's Anhui province have died from H7N9 bird flu, the first fatalities in China among this winter's cases
The China Africa Project
11.29.16
How Rwanda Attracts Chinese Money and Migrants Without the Lure of Natural Resources
Quartz’s Africa correspondent Lily Kuo recently returned from a reporting assignment to Rwanda where she discovered a very different side of China’s engagement in Africa. Rwanda lacks many of the resources and large markets that...
A Chinese Aid Project for Rwandan Farmers is More of a Gateway for Chinese Businesses
The Chinese approach to development cooperation does not separate aid, diplomacy, and commerce
China Land Reform Opens Door to Corporate Farming
Move to bring capital into large-scale agriculture keeps bar on individual ownership
China Tries to “Divide and Rule” Taiwan by Befriending Pro-Beijing Towns
Taiwanese local officials, representing China-friendly Nationalist Party controlled counties, were promised greater tourism and agricultural ties
In Push for G.M.O.s, China Battles Fears of 8-Legged Chickens
China has ambitions to be a major player in genetically modified food, but first it needs to dispel images of poisoned seeds and contaminated fields
Why Cambodia is Pinning its Hopes on Chinese President’s Visit
A country reeling from falling rice prices and foreign investment has its eyes on emergency aid and a boost in trade
The China Africa Project
05.16.16
Why Chinese Agriculture Engagement in Africa is Not What it Seems
The Western and African media have long fueled the myth that Chinese investors are buying up vast tracts of land across...
Pork Shortage in China Leads to Soaring Prices, Rush to Import
U.S. pig industry benefits from boost in exports to pork-loving China.
Green Space
01.27.16
Kunming’s Stinky Lake, Beijing’s Saving Winds
Lake Dian in Kunming, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, suffered greatly when, in the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong called on the Chinese people to “conquer nature” and reclaim land by filling lakes with soil.
Nowadays,...
Environment
01.19.16
Is Industrial Farming a Tech-Fix or Dead End for Tackling Climate Change?
from chinadialogueResearchers estimate that between 44 and 57 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) come from the global food system. Agriculture and deforestation caused by agriculture account for 26-33 percent of total emissions, making...
The China Africa Project
11.10.15
Challenging the Myth of Chinese Land Grabs in Africa
Among the most durable myths surrounding the China-Africa relationship is the fear that the Chinese government and private enterprises are buying vast tracts of African farm land and have plans to transplant millions of Chinese peasants to live...
Environment
10.30.15
China’s Stalk-Burning Clampdown Shows Limits of Command-and-Control
from chinadialogueAt the end of the National Day holiday earlier this month, Beijing bid farewell to weeks of relatively good air quality and...
Books
06.16.15
The Yellow River
Flowing through the heart of the North China Plain―home to 200 million people―the Yellow River sustains one of China’s core regions. Yet this vital water supply has become highly vulnerable in recent decades, with potentially serious repercussions for China’s economic, social, and political stability. The Yellow River is an investigative expedition to the source of China’s contemporary water crisis, mapping the confluence of forces that have shaped the predicament that the world’s most populous nation now faces in managing its water reserves.
Duck-Rice, Honey Bees and Mandarins
There has to be a financial model which allows the farmers to see the impact of restoration on their business.
China, Russia Prepare $2 Billion Agricultural Investment Fund
The fund will develop agricultural projects in the two countries and set up a free-trade zone between their key farming belts.
Environment
03.11.15
China’s Polluted Soil and Water Will Drive up World Food Prices
from chinadialogueChina’s push for more intense farming has kept its city dwellers well-fed and helped lift millions of rural workers out of poverty. But it has come at a cost. Ecosystems in what should be one of the country’s most fertile regions have already...
Environment
10.16.14
‘Paranoia’ and Public Opinion
from chinadialogueWhen permits for Chinese researchers to grow genetically modified rice and corn expired this summer, there was concern. More so, given there was little indication that the Ministry of Agriculture would renew them.
The certificates, issued...
Sinica Podcast
06.06.14
Rice, Wheat, and Air Filters
from Sinica PodcastThis week on Sinica, we're delighted to be joined by Thomas Talhelm, Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of a recent paper proposing a...
Environment
04.24.14
Almost One-Fifth of China’s Arable Land is Polluted
from chinadialogueAlmost one-fifth of China’s arable land is polluted to various degrees, according to a national soil quality report on April 17.
The report, based...
Distribution of Metals in Soils From Uncultivated Land, Soils From Rice Fields and in Rice Grown in the Area of an Industrial Complex With Metal Smelting and Processing Facilities in Hunan Province, China
Greenpeace
Contamination of soil with a number of toxic metals, including cadmium and lead, is known to be an existing problem for many parts of Hunan province, China. High levels of these metals have also been reported for rice grown in many parts of the...
Caixin Media
08.12.13
China’s Urban Sludge Dilemma: Sinking in Stink
Promptly at noon on March 17, a heavy truck hauling a dark substance and on a dark mission pulled out of the Gaobeidian Wastewater Treatment Plant in eastern Beijing.
A wastewater treatment engineer helped a Caixin reporter identify the...
China OKs Entry of First Big Cargo of Argentine Corn
Argentine Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar said Chinese health authorities cleared 60,000-tonnes of genetically modified (GMO) Argentine corn. The cargo is already headed inland to be used as hog and chicken feed.
Move Over Bordeaux: French Premium Winemakers Eye China Vintage
In a country where cheap plonk and overpriced mediocre wines still define the domestic industry, the French are partnering with Chinese investors to produce super-premium wines for increasingly discerning drinkers at the...
From Cities To Farms: Is Agriculture The Next Boom For China?
With some 6.99 million fresh graduates, 2013 is said to be the toughest year for China’s new graduates to land a job. But job hunting isn’t a concern for design-majored Chen and his girlfriend Du. The young couple, who just rented 1.5 acres of...
Prospects for U.S.-China Trade in Meat Products and Associated Investment Opportunities
Paulson Institute
The rapid growth rate in per capita disposable income in China, coupled with a continued migration of hundreds of millions of new consumers to urban areas, has created challenges for the Chinese crop and livestock sectors. Faced with an increase...
China Now Eats Twice As Much Meat as the United States
Chinese demand for meat has quadrupled over 30 years and the nation now eats a quarter of the world supply.
Environment
08.30.12
Milk Price War Puts Squeeze on China’s Dairy Farmers
from chinadialogueChina’s dairy industry has been in a precarious state since 2008, the year of the Sanlu milk-powder scandal, when babies across the country were poisoned by melamine-tainted infant formula. This incident revealed to the world the flaws in China’s...
Environment
07.18.12
China’s Overseas Food Footprint
from chinadialogueFor the last three decades, China’s factories have turned out goods for export markets, while Chinese citizens have paid the environmental price of industrialization in the pollution of their air and water and in the contamination of their land....
Restructuring Paper on a Proposed Project Restructuring of Jiangxi Integrated Agricultural Modernization Project
World Bank
The development objective of the Jiangxi Integrated Agricultural Modernization Project (JIAMP) for China is to improve the livelihood of the farmers in the project areas through establishment of integrated, sustainable, and market-driven...
Seeding Positive Impacts: How Business and Civil Society Can Contribute to the Sustainability of Chinese Agriculture
BSR
From farm-level impacts related to pesticide and fertilizer use, to the processing and packaging of the final product, processes along the agricultural supply chain in China have an adverse environmental health impact. Companies and civil society...
The Joint Stock Share System in China’s Nanhai County
Landesa
Between 1979 and 1983, China made the dramatic transition from a socialist agriculture dominated by large collective farms to a more market-oriented agriculture dominated by small family farms. This report describes the experiment’s background in...
The NYRB China Archive
02.01.96
Is There Enough Chinese Food?
from New York Review of Books1.
Many Americans think they know something about Chinese food. But very few know anything about food in China, about the ways in which it is grown, stored, distributed, eaten, and wasted, about its effects on the country’...
The NYRB China Archive
01.16.86
Turbulent Empire
from New York Review of BooksAmong the great and enduring questions in the study of Chinese history are these: In an agricultural country of such extraordinary size how was the land farmed and what were the patterns of ownership and tenancy? How was the rural revenue...
The NYRB China Archive
04.01.82
China: Mulberries and Famine
from New York Review of BooksNear the beginning of the Chinese “Classic of Historical Documents” (the Shujing), where the doings of early mythic rulers are being described, there is a brief passage that stands out among the others for its precision and clarity. The...