China has made it clear that they someday are going to take over the island of Taiwan. They have flown warplanes over it numerous times and made all sorts of claims through their state-run media. But Chinese Leader Xi Jinping just let the cat out of the bag as to why they are still holding back. It turns out China gets most of its food from imports and we are one of their biggest suppliers. But that’s not all…
“Chinese Communist officials have struggled to feed the country for decades, particularly during Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, which caused a famine that killed an estimated 30 million people from 1959 to 1961. Xi alluded to “the time of no grain” but cast the memory as motivation to fortify national security against external threats.
“I have repeatedly said Chinese people’s rice bowls should be firmly held in our own hands, never let others take us by the throat on eating, which is a basic survival issue,” Xi told a recent conference of Chinese economic officials.
“You have a very aggressive, self-confident leader, now going into a third term, declaring this a national security issue,” observed Evan Ellis, an expert on China’s engagement with Latin America at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. “The significance is really the tone and a claim that Xi is making, rather than a change in policy.”
“To Xi’s point, an overwhelming percentage of Chinese food imports originates in the U.S. or from close U.S. allies. China’s top five food suppliers in 2017 were Brazil, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”
So if China were to go to war with us over Taiwan then they would need to do one of two things or both. Stockpiling non-perishable food to the point that they could withstand a long confrontation and become far more self-sustainable. So if we start seeing China doing these things then it’s likely that an invasion of Taiwan is not far off.
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