News » China » Food crisis 'unlikely to repeat'

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• Food crisis 'unlikely to repeat'
• Bird strikes increase at airport in Shanghai
• 'Food will cost more' due to US drought
• Visits highlight Cairo foreign policy change
• 'Stand-off' in anti-graft war
• 23 injured in truck-bus collision in central China
• Free surgery for Tibetan children with heart disease
• Motorola job cuts spark ire in China
• 'New colonialism' accusation against China unfair
• Beijing to dredge rivers after fatal storm
• Supervising government power faces challenges
• Love transcends time, exists forever
• Gov't further cuts administrative approval items
• German Chancellor Merkel to visit China
• Tibetan medicine: marketable around the world
• China faces challenges when supervising government power
• Non-stop China-Vietnam bus service launched
• N.W. China prepares for Yellow River flood peak
• Creative mechanic and his Lamborghini
• Food adventure in Shoton Festival

Food crisis 'unlikely to repeat' Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:24 PM PDT The world is unlikely to see a repeat of the food crisis of 2007-08 despite the recent rally in grain prices, but potential risks lie ahead if countries fail to coordinate policy and increase long-term agricultural investments. The worst drought in half a century in the United States and poor crops from the Black Sea bread basket have driven up prices of corn, wheat and soybeans, increasing fears of a crisis similar to that in 2007-08 that pushed millions into poverty. "The overall grain production for 2012-13 is expected to increase by 2 percent, while consumption will increase by 1.8 percent, which means the supply can meet demand," said Zhang Zhongjun, assistant FAO representative in China. Zhang ruled out the possibility of a food crisis similar to the one in 2007-08, before which grain production had reduced two years in a row. "The increase of total grain production alone cannot guarantee a stable food price if there is no balanced global food market and well coordinated policy among world countries," Zhang said. The drought in the US, which dominates the world corn trade, has destroyed one-sixth of the country's expected corn crop, according to the Financial Times. After the hottest July in US history irreparably damaged their crops, the US government estimated corn farmers had abandoned fields greater in area than Belgium and Luxembourg, the newspaper said. "It's unavoidable to have crop failures as the agricultural industry is easily affected by natural disasters. But the problem is unbalanced production, which is especially vulnerable to risks once a certain region is affected severely by natural disasters with large scale crop failures," Zhang said. "The world needs better policy coordination in the face of such a situation and a safety net to protect poor countries," Zhang said. "Food aid to poor and heavily affected countries is far from enough." Countries with low incomes and a serious lack of food, including those in Africa, Bengal and Syria, will be among the worst affected by the increase in food prices, Zhang said. Policy in grain consumption also needs to be improved, especially the use of corn in the US, Zhang said. Under the five-year-old Renewable Fuels Standard, US fuel companies are required to ensure that 9 percent of their gasoline pools are made up of ethanol in 2012, which means converting some 40 percent of the corn crop into the bio-fuel, Reuters reported. This week, 25 US Senators urged the Environmental Protection Agency to adjust the mandate, while the chief executive of grains giant Cargill said the free market should dictate bio-fuel use, it reported. "It's all right to develop bio-technology, but it needs a reasonable plan. It cannot be developed at the cost of food security," Zhang said. FAO's Director-General Jose Graziano Da Silva wrote in the Financial Times on Aug 10 that competition for the US corn crop was only going to intensify. "An immediate, temporary suspension of that mandate would give some respite to the market and allow more of the crop to be channeled toward food and feed uses," he said. In terms of global trade on grain, Zhang called for all countries to take care of the stability of the whole market, instead of swarming to import and restrict exports once food prices go up. In the long term, Zhang said the fundamental solution should be to increase investments in agriculture, which lags behind investment in other areas. "It's predicted that the world population will grow to more than nine billion by 2050. We have enough land and water resources to feed the population as long as sufficient investment is directed to the development of agriculture, especially in poor areas in Africa and Latin America," Zhang said. Since 2008, efforts to improve productivity and investment in agriculture have improved. The World Bank boosted its investment in agriculture to $9.5 billion a year from $2.5 billion annually in 2008, according to Reuters. China's output grows China's grain output has remained higher than 500 million tons annually since 2007, and it grew by 4.5 percent to reach 571 million tons last year, marking eight consecutive years of growth, National Bureau of Statistics figures show. Despite frequent natural disasters, the output of summer grain in the country reached 129.95 million tons this year, up 3.56 million tons, or 2.8 percent, compared to last year's output, official figures show. Summer harvests account for about 30 percent of the country's annual grain output. "Due to the successive years of domestic grain harvest, China will not be easily affected by international markets both on grain supply and prices," said Wang Jimin, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' agricultural economics and development institute. "Except for a small number of local farmlands that suffered total crop failures because of flood disasters, most parts of the country's arable land benefited from rich rainfall this summer as drought had tortured those areas for a long time," said Li Maosong, a researcher on disaster reduction at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Noting that China has a large population to feed but limited arable land and fresh water to grow food, Zhang said, "it's not practical to expect China to export large amounts of grain". The global trade on grain is no more than 300 million tons a year, while China's grain consumption is more than 500 million tons a year, according to Zhang. "It will be the biggest contribution that China makes to the world if China can feed its own large population without importing large amounts of food when food prices have already been rising on the global market," Zhang said. Contact the writers at chengguangjin@chinadaily.com.cn and jinzhu@chinadaily.com.cn

Bird strikes increase at airport in Shanghai Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:24 PM PDT At least three collisions between birds and airplanes have happened at Shanghai's Pudong airport since July, forcing three airlines to change their flight schedules and leaving passengers worried. On Tuesday, United Airlines canceled its UA858 flight to San Francisco due to a bird strike at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The bird hit the engine during taxiing before the Boeing 747 took off. It was the third similar accident at the airport since July. On Aug 18, an outbound Spring Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at the Pudong airport after colliding with a bird a few minutes after it took off. One of the plane's two engines was damaged. Spring Airlines said that the plane, which was flying to Hong Kong, returned to the airport at 11:26 am. No passengers were injured, and they boarded another plane after a four-hour delay. The Shanghai Airport Authority declined to comment when contacted by China Daily. Typhoons blamed But according to a report in local newspaper Oriental Morning Post, the airport authority attributed the bird strikes to frequent typhoons this summer, saying that the natural disasters have hit many areas near the airport where the birds have nests, prompting some birds to move closer to the airport. The report also said that the airport has boosted the inspection of runways and is using various methods to keep the birds away. Some of the collisions are proving costly to the airlines. "In some cases, we are not able to repair some serious damage caused by the bird strikes and have to return the damaged planes to the manufacturers. The birds can get stuck in the engine and may damage internal parts, which we can't see with a naked eye," said Hu Xu, an aircraft maintenance worker with Shanghai Airlines. Hu said that every plane has to pass a "bird strike test", also known as an engine impact resistance test, before delivery. However, some of his work still involves repairing damage caused by bird strikes or by lightning. The airport's bird control team has been busy in the last few days. "They fire bird bombs into the sky to scare the birds away," said Tong Hao, an employee at the Pudong airport. Bird bombs are pyrotechnic devices used by the aviation industry to deter birds without harming them. According to Yuan Xiao, deputy director of the Shanghai Wildlife Conservation Station, the reason egrets are often seen near Pudong airport these days is because the airport was built next to a wetland by the seaside where the birds live. "May is egret breeding season and now is the time when young birds are learning to fly and are heading all the way to the sea for food," he said. Because airports are often in areas with low population next to water, wetlands or lawns, the birds' migratory routes sometimes overlap with airport airspaces. "Shanghai is located along central coastlines, which means basically that the airport has to partly overlap with migratory routes wherever it is built," said Lei Jinyu, project coordinator with the Wuhan office of the World Wide Fund for Nature China. Different methods To address the problem, almost every airport in China has tried a variety of methods to disperse birds, including using other breeds of predator birds, scaring them off with the voice of their avian enemies or firing bird bombs. Located along birds' migratory routes and in an area that is home to 142 types of birds, the Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Jiangsu province is often threatened by bird attacks, especially from July to October. "Thousands of egrets have been gathering in forests southwest of the airport since July," said the director of the airport authority surnamed Shen. The airport's priority now is to fix the protective screening damaged by the recent typhoon Haikui. Sometimes gas guns are also used to disperse the birds. Airports set up high-precision launch systems where guns with an 80-meter range aim at the birds from all directions. However, bird experts suggest that ecological methods could prove more helpful than simply driving birds away with loud noises. For Sui Guohui, one of the workers in charge of bird population control at the Beijing Capital International Airport, Lukou airport's methods are still at a primitive stage. With about 30 of his colleagues, he follows the ecological chain of birds to drive them away from the airport rather than scare them away. Since 1999, Sui and his colleagues have been mowing grass and using herbicides to control the growth of grass, keeping the height to less than 20 centimeters so that rats and other pests, which are food for the birds, will not breed in nearby forests. "It's a much slower way to reduce the number of birds but it's also a more effective way," said Sui. Zhou Qinnan contributed to this story. Contact the writer at shiyingying@chinadaily.com.cn

'Food will cost more' due to US drought Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:24 PM PDT Basic supplies safe but oil and pork prices to rise, expert says The US drought will not endanger domestic food security but it is almost certain to result in costlier cooking oil and pork, experts said. The drought, the worst in more than 50 years, will affect China but not to the extent that basic food supplies are threatened, Zhai Jianglin, vice-president of the Academy of Science and Technology at the State Administration of Grain, told China Daily on Thursday. There is no indication of any need for the government to stabilize the market with strategic reserves of oil-bearing grains, he said. But he declined to comment on whether Beijing will use reserves in the following months. Price hikes for soybean and corn in the international markets will affect domestic prices because of imports. But "for other grains, such as rice and wheat, China has sufficient domestic supplies and will not easily be affected", he said. Zhang Zhongjun, assistant representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in China, said imports account for around 80 percent of the country's soybean supplies. But, Zhang added, domestic grain supplies are adequate and there is even a substantial reserve program. While corn prices will rise, China imports just 5 percent of its supplies, Wang Ruiyuan, vice-president of the Chinese Cereals and Oils Association, said. Huang Guiheng, manager of Bric Global Agricultural Consultants, added that the US drought has already driven up domestic soybean prices significantly, as half of China's annual soybean imports are from the US. The price of imported soybeans rose from 4,350 yuan ($685) per metric ton in April to 4,700 yuan in August. "The global soybean price rise is unlikely to end until we find out more about the South American planting in November," he said. China imported 34.92 million tons of soybean in the first seven months of this year, an increase of 20.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs. China imported 52.64 million tons of soybeans in 2011. Agricultural specialists forecast that imports in 2012 will range between 55 million and 57 million tons. Huang said that domestic soybean production will be around 9.8 million tons this year, against 10 million tons in 2011. The rise in the price of soybean is not an isolated event. It will also push up the price of cooking oil and increase feed costs for pig farmers. Consequently, pork prices might rise in the fourth quarter as could the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, Huang said. The National Development and Reform Commission recently talked with five major edible oil suppliers, including COFCO and Yihai Kerry, to ask them to hold back price rises, media reports said. Contact the writers at lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn and chengguangjin@chinadaily.com.cn Jin Zhu contributed to this story.

Visits highlight Cairo foreign policy change Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:24 PM PDT With visits to China, Iran and the United States on the horizon, the Egyptian president is indicating that these are changing times for his country's foreign policy, analysts said. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will start a three-day visit to China on Tuesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei said on Wednesday. It is the first visit by Morsi to a country outside the Middle East and Africa since he assumed office in June. Economic cooperation will be high on the agenda as the Egyptian economy, heavily dependent on tourism, was particularly hard hit during recent political turmoil, according to He Wenping, an expert on the Middle East and African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The world is turning to Asia, as Europe is still plagued by its debt crisis, and Egypt is no exception," she said. Morsi realizes the importance of economic growth, she added. The turmoil in Syria, and Middle East affairs in general, will also be discussed during Morsi's Beijing visit, Ye Hailin, a commentator on Middle East affairs, said. After visiting China, Morsi will attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Teheran on Thursday, the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran in 30 years. He will also attend the UN General Assembly session in New York on Sept 23. Morsi is adjusting the government's pro-US foreign policy, established under his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, He said. Cairo is now trying to diversify its foreign policy and establish relations with a broader range of countries, she said. "Egypt is honoring the Camp David Accords, ensuring that it gets US aid but is also in contact with Iran which is under US sanctions," she said. "Morsi is recalibrating Cairo-Washington ties," she added. Morsi took office on June 30 after protests last year toppled Mubarak. He visited Saudi Arabia in July on his first foreign trip, followed by a visit to Ethiopia. Relations between Iran and Egypt underwent a deep chill following the revolution that overthrew the Shah. Ahmed Rezk, Egyptian ambassador to China, told Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday that Egypt will continue to honor its treaties, especially with Israel. Morsi's willingness to go to Teheran shows Egypt is repositioning itself in the region, and drafting its own independent foreign policy, Ye said. Morsi's strategy and efforts to maintain peace with major players in the region will help "restore" Egypt's influence in the Middle East, He said. AP contributed to this story. qinzhongwei@chinadaily.com.cn

'Stand-off' in anti-graft war Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:24 PM PDT Supervision of power will be pivotal to China's battle against corruption, with the forces of corruption and those fighting it currently at a "stand-off", a senior anti-corruption official has said. Li Xueqin, head of the research division under the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks in a recent interview in which he discussed the anti-corruption efforts made in the 20 years since the Party declared a war on corruption in 1993. Li said that "stand-off" status is the best description of the overall situation. Li said China faces grim challenges in fighting corruption. He said for every achievement, problems still exist, and while it is an impossible task to eliminate corruption in the short term, there is increasing pressure from the public to stamp out the practice. Li said the focus of the 1993 mission has changed over the years from fighting corruption to preventing it. In the first 10 years of the mission, the strategy was to curb the rising trend of corruption, and the main tasks were upholding leaders' integrity and investigating cases. In the past 10 years, however, the main focus has shifted to prevention, and to eradicating the roots of the crime, according to Li. Li said legal frameworks and international cooperation has improved in the past five years. More than 50 laws and regulations have been formulated to help fight corruption during that time. And a group of fugitives suspected of corruption, including Lai Changxing who had been at large for 12 years in Canada, have been repatriated, a sign that runaway suspects have few chances of escape, Li added. More than 60 officials at ministerial and provincial levels were among the 600,000 people who have been punished for violating Party and government rules since the 17th CPC National Congress was held in 2007, according to a report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The Transparency International based in Berlin last year elevated China to 75th place among 183 countries and regions on a transparency index. The achievement came amid the importance that senior leaders of the Party have placed on fighting corruption. President Hu Jintao has warned that corruption was one of the growing dangers that confront the Party and it has become more important and urgent for the Party to discipline itself and impose strict rules on its members. He Guoqiang, head of the commission, said on Tuesday that fighting corruption and promoting integrity would provide a "solid guarantee" to the positive development of the Party and the country. He asked the Party to improve its system of punishment and prevention of corruption in order to ensure the country remains corruption free today and in the years ahead. Li predicted that a key transitional period is coming. "We'll completely, rather than partly, contain the corruption issue. And the issue will go from a vulnerable stage to a manageable stage. "I think the three most prominent problems are: the large number of corruption cases involving officials in high positions; the large amount of money in the cases; and the large number of 'heads' that are nabbed." Li summarized that the root cause of the problem is ineffective supervision and weak counterbalance of government power, and rectifying these issues will be the key to fighting corruption in the future. Xinhua contributed to this story. wanghuazhong@chinadaily.com.cn

23 injured in truck-bus collision in central China Posted: 23 Aug 2012 03:57 AM PDT Twenty-three people were injured when a truck collided with a bus Thursday morning in central China's Hunan Province.

Free surgery for Tibetan children with heart disease Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:07 AM PDT A medical aid program was launched for Tibetan children with congenital heart disease in Nyingchi Prefecture, on August 19, 2012.??Six cardiologists from Guangdong Province were invited to attend the opening ceremony, to conduct congenital heart disease screening for children patients from Zayul and Pome County of Tibet?s Nyingchi Prefecture, which announced the start of the free treatment program.

Motorola job cuts spark ire in China Posted: 23 Aug 2012 02:15 AM PDT Motorola's decision to make staff cuts at its China divisions has been greeting with anger among employees who cite unfair terms and express real fears for the future.

'New colonialism' accusation against China unfair Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:32 AM PDT HONG KONG - The so-called "new colonialism" allegation that China has exploited Africa's resources is unfair, given that China has made great efforts to help the continent's development and benefit its people, a Chinese official said here Thursday. "Some countries spread the rumor that China has conducted colonialist resource-grabbing in Africa, or the so called 'new colonialism'. It is an unfair accusation," Sun Zhenyu, chairman of China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said at the second China Overseas Investment Summit (COIS). "Oil export to China accounted for 13 percent of Africa's total over the past century and more, while the figures for the United States, and the European Union is 30 percent, and 37 percent, respectively," said Sun, adding that China has helped the continent build more than 2,000 km of railway, over 3,000 km of roads, over 100 schools and more than 60 hospitals. Sun meanwhile said that Chinese enterprises must abide by relevant law and regulations in their overseas investment, as irregular practices will have negative consequences and deteriorate the overall investment environment. Chinese companies also need to pay attention to ecological environment protection and handle properly local labor relations, he said. China pledged $20 billion of credit line to African countries in July, which will assist the development of infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and small and medium- sized enterprises in the continent.   Africa has become one of China's top investment destinations, with more than 2,000 Chinese enterprises investing in the continent. Accumulated investment from China has surpassed $40 billion by the end of 2011.

Beijing to dredge rivers after fatal storm Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:32 AM PDT Updated: 2012-08-23 15:16 ( chinadaily.com.cn) The capital plans to improve its flood prevention and drainage system by dredging river channels and reinforcing dikes and reservoirs so that the city is prepared and able to cope with extreme flooding, Beijing News reported Thursday. By October, workers will have cleared sludge and other waste that was washed into rivers by the July 21 rainstorm, the heaviest to hit the Chinese capital in 60 years, Cheng Jing, director of the Beijing Water Authority, said Wednesday. The city will also harness its 34 small and medium-sized rivers, reinforce 13 reservoirs and renovate flood control works in 15 river basins, Cheng said, adding that these projects will be completed by June of next year. Also a new rule has been introduced that all newly-built communities must have rain storage facilities, with every 10,000 square meters areas being able to hold more than 500 cubic meters rains. The devastating rainstorm in Beijing that killed 79 people last month, sparked a nationwide fury over the city's weak drainage system. Related Stories Death toll from Beijing rainstorm rises to 78 2012-08-03 15:52 Beijing reflects on emergency management 2012-07-27 20:51 160 cultural relics damaged in Beijing storm 2012-07-26 09:46 Chinese netizens mourn victims of Beijing downpour 2012-07-23 20:17 Record rainfall replenishes Beijing water supplies 2012-07-23 15:36 Beijing urges all-out effort after rain disaster 2012-07-23 10:24

Supervising government power faces challenges Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:32 AM PDT BEIJING - A senior anti-corruption official has warned of challenges facing the supervision of government power but is confident of an improving situation. There has been an increasing number of corruption cases involving senior officials, especially by those in charge. The amount of illegal money involved in corruption cases has been increasing from a few years ago, Li Xueqin, head of the research division under the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said, in an interview with Xinhua. More than 60 officials at ministerial and provincial levels were among 600,000 people who have faced punishment for violating Party and government disciplines, since the 17th CPC National Congress held in 2007, according to a CCDI report. One of the latest corruption convicts was Liu Zhuozhi, former vice chairman of north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region government, who was sentenced to life imprisonment having received more than 8.17 million yuan (1.3 million U.S. dollars) in bribes between 2002 and 2010. Liu Zhijun, the country's former railway minister, was investigated for serious disciplinary violations including using his position to seek "huge illegal interests" for a businesswoman, though the exact amount of illegitimate money involved is not available. "It shows that the government power has not been effectively supervised and regulated," Li said. In the next few years, China's anti-corruption work will focus on extending the supervision system in every aspect of government work and impose tougher punishments on offenders, he said. The anti-corruption agencies will also continue pursuing corrupt officials. However, Li said the number of cases, investigated by discipline agencies and prosecutors, has gone down since 2004 despite some fluctuations. Anti-corruption measures will work more effectively in the next few years and the problem will be under control, he said. "I believe through persistent efforts the incidence of corruption cases will remain stable and even reduce." The CPC started large-scale efforts to curb corruption among Party and government officials about two decades ago. In a keynote speech in July, President Hu Jintao warned that corruption was one of the growing dangers that confronts the Party and it has become more important and urgent for the Party to police itself and impose strict disciplines on its members. In another speech on July 23, Hu listed fighting corruption as one of the efforts that must be continued to promote Party building. "There is no political party in the world that pays so much attention to anti-corruption as the CPC," Li said.

Love transcends time, exists forever Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:32 AM PDT Image above: The newly married couple are enjoying the beautiful scenery of the West Lake on the ship. Photo was shot in September, 1956. Image below: The young couple is holding their wedding in a swimming pool in a hot spring resort in Zhengzhou. Photo was shot on Jan 26th, 2006. [Photo/Xinhua]

Gov't further cuts administrative approval items Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:22 AM PDT The State Council has decided to remove or modify 314 administrative examination and approval items in order to further clear systematic obstacles for its social and economic development and curb corruption.

German Chancellor Merkel to visit China Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:22 AM PDT German Chancellor Angela Merkel will pay an official visit to China from Aug. 30 to 31 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Tibetan medicine: marketable around the world Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:40 PM PDT The traditional Tibetan medical system has been accepted and favored more widely, but still faces difficulties on worldwide popularization, said experts and doctors on the recently concluded 5th Beijing International Seminar on Tibetan Studies.

China faces challenges when supervising government power Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:19 PM PDT A senior anti-corruption official has warned of challenges facing the supervision of government power but is confident of an improving situation.

Non-stop China-Vietnam bus service launched Posted: 22 Aug 2012 10:40 PM PDT A non-stop bus service linking Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, opened on Wednesday.

N.W. China prepares for Yellow River flood peak Posted: 22 Aug 2012 10:00 PM PDT Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is bracing for its strongest flood peak in 3 decades generated by the Yellow River. Local authorities have been closely watching the water level and placed security guards along the river bank on alert.

Creative mechanic and his Lamborghini Posted: 22 Aug 2012 11:12 PM PDT 28-year-old Wang Jian from Siyang county in east China's Jiangsu province recently duplicated a mock-Lamborghini Reventon sports car with his bare hands and simple tools.

Food adventure in Shoton Festival Posted: 22 Aug 2012 10:25 PM PDT The Shoton Festival which lasts from August 17 to 23 features not only religious celebrations but also a manifestation of tasty Tibetan flavors, when families come together in a grand style as they can afford.

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