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Jill Disis

 

How a warning about food supply sparked panic buying in China

Few issues are more important to Beijing than food security. For centuries, ruling governments have grappled with the challenges of feeding a large, expanding population. Droughts, floods and famines feature prominently throughout Chinese history — and rebellions launched by starving peasants toppled numerous imperial dynasties.

 

But the government's latest attempt to head off concerns about pricing and supply appears to be spiraling out of control.

 

A missive about stockpiling food from China's Ministry of Commerce sparked panic buying among the public and frenzied online speculation this week.

 

At first glance, the notice doesn't seem too different from the typical directives the Chinese government has sent in the past stressing the need to shore up supplies.

 

This one orders local authorities to ensure that their citizens have an "adequate supply" of essentials this winter. It also instructs those governments to keep food costs stable — a point of concern in recent weeks, as extreme weather, energy shortages and Covid-19 restrictions threaten supply.

 

But Monday's directive has attracted the attention of everyday Chinese in a way that few other government notices have.

 

In part, that appears to be because it includes rare language about the need for local authorities to encourage families to stockpile "daily necessities." Even if the notice wasn't intended for the average household to read, many online have seized on it as a personal warning.

 

The government "didn't even tell us to stock goods when the Covid outbreak erupted in early 2020," wrote one user on the Twitter-like Weibo service earlier this week.

 

The reaction has since escalated. One video posted on Weibo by the state owned news magazine China News Weekly shows long lines of shoppers at grocery stores in Changzhou, a city in Jiangsu province. Their carts are stacked full of produce and other supplies, while shelves throughout the stores are empty.

 

Food is a very sensitive issue in China. The Great Chinese Famine during the 1950s and 60s led to the deaths of an estimated tens of millions of people.

 

The tragedy remains within living memory for many in the country. And while China's economy has since undergone a dramatic transformation, concerns about food security linger: The government, for example, recently unveiled an "action plan" encouraging people not to order more food than they need, and to report restaurants that waste food.

 

Still, the unease caused by the commerce ministry notice has been unusually intense. Rampant speculation has even linked the call to stockpile food with rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei. China considers Taiwan an "inseparable part" of its territory, even though the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled the self-governing island.

 

There's nothing whatsoever to substantiate any rumors that China is preparing for imminent war. But the online panic does suggest some brewing tension, according to Willy Lam, an adjunct professor in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

 

"It is a reflection of the tense geopolitical situation between China and neighboring countries," he said.

 

Lam also pointed to several economic anxieties that may be contributing to the turmoil. This year's energy crunch forced factories to suspend some production and triggered blackouts for households — problems that in some cases "happened without any prior notice from the government," he said.

"It reflects the anxiety of the people regarding further drastic rises in food [costs] and also a mistrust of the government," Lam added.

 

The Chinese government and some state media outlets have tried to allay fears about food shortages.

 

Zhu Xiaoliang, a commerce ministry official, told state broadcaster CCTV this week that there's plenty of supplies to go around. Zhu stressed that the directive was intended for local authorities.

 

The Jiangsu Department of Emergency Management, meanwhile, acknowledged concerns about "emergency supplies" on its WeChat account Tuesday. But the agency said any recommendations for stockpiling are "normal" and intended to "improve the public's awareness of disaster prevention."

 

The government's commitment to a zero-Covid policy — even as countries around the world reopen and learn to live with the coronavirus — is also likely a factor. Just a single case can spur Chinese authorities into action, locking down entire areas and carrying out mass tests or quarantine requirements.

 

Such measures "will likely impact residents going to shops, and also impact the operating hours of markets," said Chenjun Pan, a senior analyst at Rabobank who researches agriculture in China.

 

Wang Hongcun, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, acknowledged last week that strict containment measures may be contributing to the rising cost of food, adding that the cost of transiting across regions could increase. He pointed out that the prices of some vegetables in the nation's capital had soared 50% or more in October.

 

Lam said Beijing is not likely to change course, either, meaning that cities have to prepare to endure potentially long lockdowns as the government tries to keep its coronavirus case count low.

 

"This is a preparation for the fact that these lockdown conditions will continue, even though by and large, the total numbers for China are actually very low compared to other countries," he added. "It's unlikely that Beijing will stop this zero tolerance policy."

Perishing in prison

Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist imprisoned for reporting on China's initial Covid outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020, is in desperate need of medical care, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which calls for her immediate release. The 38-year-old has been on multiple hunger strikes since being detained in May last year. She was briefly hospitalized but was sent back to prison despite her worsening health. Zhang's mother, who had a video visit with her in October, said her daughter could not hold her head up for lack of strength — she is 5 feet, 10 inches tall (1.78 meters), yet now weighs under 88 pounds (about 40 kilograms), according to the HRW.

Sexual assault allegation sends censors into overdrive

It's been two days since Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai fired an explosive #MeToo allegation against former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, accusing the 75-year-old of coercing her into sex at his home three years ago.

Her accusation, made in a since-deleted social media post, created headlines around the world. But in China — where the former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion's bombshell caused shockwaves online on Tuesday — all is silent.

Chinese censors have scrambled to wipe out any mention of the scandal — including even the vaguest of allusions — with a speed and ferocity unseen in any of the country's previous #MeToo cases.

The political sensitivity here is self-evident: Zhang was one of China's seven most powerful men when he sat on the ruling Communist Party's supreme Politburo Standing Committee alongside President Xi Jinping. And 35-year-old Peng's allegation came just days before a crucial meeting of party elites in Beijing, which is expected to pave the way for Xi to cement a third term in office.

CNN cannot independently verify Peng's post, and has reached out to both her and China's State Council for comment.

Peng's original post on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, was taken down in under 30 minutes. But that did little to curtail public interest — within hours, her name had been searched for more than 6.7 million times on Weibo, according to China Digital Times, a website tracking Chinese internet controls.

Peng's verified account, which has more than half a million followers, became unsearchable on Weibo, while all comment sections under her previous posts were shut down. Screenshots of her post, along with other posts discussing the case, were swiftly removed.

Weibo also restricted searches for a growing list of keywords, from "the universe is so big" — a line Zhang allegedly used to persuade Peng to have sex, according to her post — to something as innocuous as "tennis."

Social media users soon turned to a host of ever more obscure ways to refer to Peng and Zhang, from using the names of celebrities who share their initials or a character in their names, to referencing British politician Matt Hancock's affair or a Korean romantic drama to allude to the scandal — but these were swiftly censored too.

Such cat-and-mouse games with censors have long been a fact of life for Chinese internet users. But this time, the desperate attempt by authorities to muffle public discussion proved too much for some.

"There is a 'new normal' in this land: On hearing about the scandals of high-level officials, our instinctive reaction is fear," said a comment on Douban, a Chinese social media site. "We know which side will win before the battle is even fought. Everyone knows this, but no one dares to discuss it; everything is secretive, and swept under the rug. Everything is reduced to code words; everyone nudges you into deleting your posts. It's as if, by the simple act of reading something, we have become the wrongdoers."

The post was later censored too. 

Around Asia

• Indonesia's environment minister has dismissed as "inappropriate and unfair" a global plan to end deforestation by 2030, days after her country — home to a third of the world's rainforests — joined 127 other nations in making the pledge.
• North Korea can get all the uranium it needs for nuclear weapons through its existing Pyongsan mill, a new study found.
• The World Health Organization has granted approval for Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech's home-grown Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for it to be accepted in many poor countries.
• A study looking at multiple catastrophes hitting the Great Barrier Reef has found for the first time that only 2% of its area has escaped bleaching since 1998.