Contemporary Chinese Agriculture And Its Implications On Foreign Policy

I have a passion for Agriculture and food security and so for my dissertation decided to investigate China's Agricultural and food security situation to determine to what extent it influences domestic and foreign politics. China is widely recognised as having achieved miraculous achievements in reducing undernourishment and hunger for it huge population since reform and is often cited by other developing countries as offering an alternative approach to achieve development. The initial reform of China's agricultural sector provided one of the key impetuses for the rapid economic development which followed in later years, and having achieved relative food self-sufficiency the Chinese government has been able to continue to develop the country harmoniously as– food - one of humans most basic needs has been met.I am aware of the link between food security and political stability and so began questioning to what extent the Chinese Government is sensitive to this issue and in control of the situation under all the dramatic transitions taking place domestically. So I set out to research how agriculture has developed and what the factors are which drive production and supply within China. I explored food demands and challenges to meeting these demands, as well as the responses by government to resolve the tension which are evolving as demographics are changing. I discovered that norms and values influence China's national identity and thereby conception of national sovereignty and insistence of food self-sufficiency. Due to greater liberalisation of the Chinese economy since joining the WTO, the government has become aware of the pressures that domestic agriculture faces and so has begun taking greater interest in rural development and support of Chinese farmers in order to remain competitive, while maintain domestic harmonious development. At the same time, China faces similar agricultural trade threats to other developing countries in the international sphere so has embarked on taking greater responsible leadership in order help establish a fairer international trade regime. In line with these challenges and based on its own successes, I further identify trends of China's engaging in agricultural diplomacy abroad to help develop agricultural capacity in other developing countries, which intern increases its soft power and creates future import and export agricultural markets. By understanding Chinese domestic circumstances it becomes apparent that there are links between domestic and foreign policy and what is interesting in China's case are that the norms and values which underpin China's national identity influence the way in which the government is acting both internally and externally. This is what I hoped to achieve by examining China with agricultural'lenses'(i.e., from the perspective of Agriculture).