China Mysteriously Quadruples Rice Imports - Continues To Stockpile Commodities

I'm surprised they are importing it.. aren't they one of the top rice growers and exporters of the world? Below does mention 2009 though, I've got to run but will try to find 2012 info later.
From wiki:

World production of rice has risen steadily from about 200 million tonnes of paddy rice in 1960 to over 678 million tonnes in 2009. The three largest producers of rice in 2009 were China (197 million tonnes), India (131 Mt), and Indonesia (64 Mt). Among the six largest rice producers, the most productive farms for rice, in 2009, were in China producing 6.59 tonnes per hectare.[63] At 44 million hectares, India had the largest farm area under rice production in 2009. The rice farm productivity in India were about 45% of the rice farm productivity in China, and about 60% of the rice farm productivity in Indonesia. If India could adopt the farming knowledge and technology in use in China and Indonesia, India could produce an additional 100 million tonnes of rice, enough staple food for about 400 million people every year, and US$50 billion in additional annual income to its rice farmers (adjusted to 2010 dollars and global rice prices per tonne). In the 1990s, genetic studies took place in many European laboratories to increase rice production per hectare. Most of them were Dutch agricultural organizations united by HNGAC. These studies were later stopped due to lack of funding.

According to this link the US is the world's largest exporter of agriculture.

China has a population more than 4x the size of the US, and has ongoing environmental catastrophe's which threaten their food supply. I recall reading about a potential dam that could go kablammo and cause 200 million people to need to relocate.

It would seem this may explain the "ghost towns" which exist that China owns in both the mainland, and on the continent of Africa.

Basically, the US is secure as far as food is concerned, and China has big problems it will likely face in the years coming.

It makes sense for them to stockpile for some really hard times that seem to be probable in the near future.

As for all the bunkers, eh... people can say "this is a time of world peace and prosperity" all they want, but it seems geopolitical disolocations, and climate change wildcards could change that perception rather quickly.

Originally posted by rickymouse
With the problems we are having with Climate change, why wouldn't all governments be stockpiling foods. China probably saw that their reserves were not enough to take care of their people. It isn't like the strange weather patterns seen around the world are normal, noone knows how bad it is going to get. Most people should consider stocking up a little, after all it is something most of our ancestors used to do. They canned food that lasted a couple of years and rotated so they were a winter ahead. Nowadays we are dumb and ignorant as to what the future can bring. If done right, a person can stock a years supply of food for the price of a fancy coffee each day at Starbucks. I have three months supply of coffee stockpiled ahead and it cost us about 40 bucks. Now we just buy a can on sale to replace what we use during rotation.

I would like to add a bit to the above comments. If you think storage is stupid, then how about using it as a money saving device. As ricky said, if you buy more than what you need when it's on sale, and keep using until it's on sale again, you will have to output more up front, but your savings on food will amount to a minimum of 25% more than right now. If your family budget is $800 per month for a family of four, times 12 is just short of ten grand a year in expenditure. Knock $2500 off of that and what could it be spent on.

Maybe your credit card debt?

Having read the article, the following can be stated:

China is developing military wise, increasing it capactiy for being on the open ocean, such as air craft carriers and subs. Any military force would require large amounts of metals and food to feed troops. Copper is used in componets for ships and other hardware.

Or it could be that with China's large population, they need additional grains and materials for keeping their population fed, and with conviences of life.

And the U.S. is stocking ammo