An anti-government protester throws back a tear gas canister at the police during a demonstration near Central Government Complex in Hong Kong, China, September 15, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Instapundit: LOTS OF ONGOING HONG KONG COVERAGE FROM MICHAEL YON. Plus, he offers this observation from a friend, about the pork-tariff item noted here yesterday:
”There is a tiny, tiny notice in the news today that China has backed off on its tariffs on US soy and pork.
Ya don’t say…
First of all, soy and pork are protein, which is a chronic problem in all national food chains, but more so in China. Between their traditional plant based diet and the cultural prestige of eating pork (the middle class literally measures its affluence by how many nights a week they eat pork and the lower classes and villages use pork as a celebratory meal), China’s protein consumption is very narrowly restricted to soy and pork (fish is common, but not nearly as available as soy and pork).
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Michael Yon has been providing some valuable on the ground observations and reporting from Hong Kong. He is a must read for those who are concerned with what is happening there.
6 comments:
Collectivism kills. The Soviets discovered the same thing in the mid eighties - that they were unable to feed their population despite massive arable land resources. I don't this they ever put two and two together to discover their mistakes. The fall of the USSR happened "organically". The Chinese are just repeating unlearned/ignored history. More attuned to "saving face" and preserving the status quo for the elites than they are preserving their population. Add in a rapacious, ethno-fascist national ethos, Ruinous industrial policy and an unbalanced male to female demographic. Its an old tune in the communist bloc. I do not expect them to change in any significant way, short of a massive internal upheaval - which I heartily encourage.
To come to the point that China is forced to virtually admit that they are unable to competently produce and distribute food to its population is a very big deal. Sick pigs, sick chickens, not enough rice, despoiled land and 2 billion potentially restive people.
The money quote in the article is, "Imagine a US shortage of wheat and chicken, with no real access to corn or beef, and a couple dozen urban areas of 20 millions or more with just a third arable land as now. That’s China."
ANIMAL,
FARM,
R,
RussInSoCal
You are perfectly right.
In the early 1980s the Central Party allowed farmers to farm a portion of the land for themselves while working on the collectives.
Same labor force farming the same land and yet they produced more. They were working for themselves. It is something that your average liberal cannot understand and the above average ones know it but ignore it, because they are in it for the power.
So the farmers got rich in comparison to everyone else on a communist salary. It bred resentment, So the CCCP had to liberalize more. It is like pulling a string and unraveling a whole garment.
Except it do not. The CCCP kept political control. Now they have something that has been called state capitalism or state-controlled capitalism. Articles in Foreign affairs have been calling it that since around 2004.
Meanwhile back in the protective cocoon of the West. the libtards still think capitalism is evil. They do not understand what it is, but they 'know it is evil.
The mechanism for control of commercial enterprises is different than under pure Marxism, but the Chinese govt. has a lot of control.
Meanwhile Antifa, AOC, the Democrat voters and many other drooling idiots keep denouncing capitalism, because they are sheep following the herd.
A growing number of Americans are prepared for food shortages, note their size, but this is a short term solution.
What is worrisome is another rainy season in the Midwest like we experienced this year.
Roger,
We can build marshes & swamps to prevent flooding. In my neck of the woods a huge swath of farmland was turned into swamp. No problems this year for something like a 100 miles DOWNSTREAM.
Floods are preventable. They were preventing floods in Sichuan 2,000 years ago successfully.
Of course any swamp land is out of grain production. To feed ourselves we could burn less food as fuel.
China though might be SOL.
Umm, bacon.
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