China’s Notice to Stock Up On Food Spurs Panic Among Citizens: Causes and Concerns
Two grandmothers shopping at a market in Shanghai, China (Reuters)
By Kaya Zhou
The start of November brings lines that wrap around street corners in Beijing, China, as shoppers anxiously fill their carts with rice, flour, and produce, leaving the rows of shelves empty. On Monday, a seemingly normal message from China’s Ministry of Commerce about stocking up on food created mass panic buying among the Chinese public. The notice contained instructions to ensure that all citizens have sufficient supply of food essentials for the winter, while instructing governments to ensure that food prices are stable, which had been a concern due to energy shortages and Covid-19 restrictions. Though slightly concerning, the missive simply encourages citizens to replenish their stocks - not completely out of the ordinary given the upcoming winter months. And yet, how has this seemingly mundane notice managed to spark such an alarming response? To understand the frantic reaction, we must delve into and explore the history and unique circumstances around the situation.
For China, feeding its growing population of 1.4 billion people is undoubtedly a crucial priority. In fact, China feeds 22 percent of the world’s population, a great feat considering it only has 9 percent of its arable land and a meager 6 percent of fresh water. Furthermore, the country produces 3.5 times as much grain and legumes as in 1960 – double the world’s increase during this time. With a market that ensures stable prices and allows citizens an abundance of food, it seems that fear of shortages this coming winter would be a faraway concern for the population. Perhaps, the anxious feelings running high among Chinese citizens, could be caused by a spur of recent events involving natural disasters that are fueling their panicked reactions. Earlier in October a tornado swept through Shandong province, China’s primary vegetable growing region, destroying large crop fields. Furthermore, throughout summer, Henan province, China’s main producer of bread, was hit with heavy rain which washed away crop fields and left farmers with little to harvest. Food can be a sensitive topic to the public in China, with the Great Chinese Famine of the 1950s, which led to the deaths of roughly 36 million Chinese citizens, still fresh on many people’s minds. This was the largest famine in human history, and the result of a combination of natural disasters and government errors. This perhaps is part of the trigger to the panic of the citizens, many of whom have lived through the famine, and these concerns were likely exacerbated by recent events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of harsh weather conditions.
This notice also stirred many political tensions: there have been numerous suggestions in the speculations online that the order to stockpile food is somehow linked to the rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei. The concerns were so overwhelming, that in an attempt to reassure the public, the Chinese state media issued a public response, telling netizens not to have ‘too much of an overactive imagination,’ and that the purpose of the notice was simply to ensure that citizens were prepared in case there would be another lockdown (Jewers, 2021). The Ministry of Commerce assured people that there was no threat to China’s food supply, and the state-run newspaper calmed online speculation by saying the intention of the notice was to make sure people were prepared for lockdowns or quarantines due to new coronavirus outbreaks (Wang, 2021). Despite these attempts at reassuring the public, many netizens remained unconvinced, with many writing speculatory posts on social media that the cautionary message may somehow be attributed to recent reports of the arrival of unspecified members from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in Taipei on a U.S. military plane.
This form of reminder is definitely different from usual; reminding citizens to stockpile food would inevitably make the market supply and demand unstable, leading to price fluctuations and causing panic among people. All these concerns are made yet worse by the rising cost of food, mainly related to the efforts to keep the Covid-19 pandemic under control, with the price of some vegetables in Beijing, the nation’s capital, rising by over 50% in October (He, 2021). Despite leading the world’s production in grains and legumes, it appears that it is the combination of a global pandemic, natural disasters that have ravaged crop fields and supply, and heightened political tensions has unsettled the people of China at the face of the Beijing Commerce Ministry’s directive, perhaps reminded of the Great Chinese Famine four decades later. The people’s fears, though exaggerated, are a telling reflection of the turbulent events of this past year; despite the Commerce Ministry’s words of reassurance, will the people’s fears become reality in the coming months? Or is this nothing more than an overreaction at the face of an unusual alert?
