Produce Internationally, Consume Locally

Abstract

China is one of the world's biggest importers of agricultural products. Until quite recently, China's agricultural policy focused on food self-sufficiency. Globalizing trade in agricultural commodities, however, has brought new challenges to establishing secure supply and achieving security rather than self-sufficiency. In the face of emerging trade tensions with the USA, one of China's responses to the emerging volatility of the global market is to expand production facilities abroad and thus diversify deliveries. This chapter discusses how China's Belt and Road Initiative may serve improving food security of the country by establishing of a predictable system of agricultural production and trade across Eurasia, particularly, with the involvement of land-abundant Russia and the countries of Central Asia. The author explores possible responses to emerging threats to China's domestic food market by elaborating an approach to theoretical definitions and practical issues of ensurance of food security and adaptation of China's policy to contemporary global challenges.