IS China the world's biggest prepper?

[bushi]

(...or a suspected terrorist, by the DHS measuring stick, I suppose).

Why all of the sudden China is apparently stockpiling on... rice???

United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011.
Read more at http://marketdailynews.com/2013/01/...millions-of-tons-of-rice/#PbVD3H9jbzq0eTCg.99

...it is 4.5 times more imported rice, than in 2011... Certainly, they aren't eating that much more, do they?

http://marketdailynews.com/2013/01/09/why-is-china-suddenly-stockpiling-millions-of-tons-of-rice/

 

[pmbug]

Chinese officials know that a lack of rice (ie. starving population) would be a driver of social unrest and possibly revolution. QE is ramping up and that is going to inflate food prices just like it did with grains (wheat especially) etc. underlying the Arab Spring movements.

 

[Jay]

Chinese officials know that a lack of rice (ie. starving population) would be a driver of social unrest and possibly revolution. QE is ramping up and that is going to inflate food prices just like it did with grains (wheat especially) etc. underlying the Arab Spring movements.

Its hard to emphasize how important rice is in asian culture. Bing always says "should I cook rice?" when its dinner time even if we are not eating rice. (well, we always eat rice ). Her mom takes payment in rice if there's no money, bad, bad luck if you run our of rice in your house.... etc.

 

[bushi]

...perhaps I should be more clear: that was a rhetorical question . It seems to me, that they are preparing themselves to a near-future turmoil, in which, it seems, basic things like food might be difficult to obtain.

 

[DCFusor]

Buy low, sell high on a governmental scale?

 

[Jay]

...perhaps I should be more clear: that was a rhetorical question . It seems to me, that they are preparing themselves to a near-future turmoil, in which, it seems, basic things like food might be difficult to obtain.

yeah, that was an unsolicited comment on my part...

 

[rblong2us]

Approx two years ago, I was reading articles by Eric De Carbonel about world food supply /demand and he was adamant that the Chinese were bullshitting their tonnages of stockpiled food.
We had several parts of the world having severe drought conditions and others loosing crops to too much rain. (the Chinese were suffering severe drought )

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article16063.html

Yet everyone was cheerfully claiming there was nothing to worry about and futures were fairly stable, so obviously no shortages.

Fast fwd to today and the Chinese really do not have the stockpiles they have always claimed to have, the stuff is now available so why not move from bullshit numbers to the real thing.

Or do they now think that justintime management and a 15 day supply is possibly not the way ?

either way, something has changed and we should take note.

 

[Unbeatable]

China & Russia are preparing for SHTF.
The Western World is deliberately not preparing for it.
Printing as much as possible, selling all of our gold & not stockpiling any food. They want to make sure we are completely helpless when SHTF.
So that we will accept whatever the New World Order, One global currency guys offer us at that point.

 

[ancona]

China plans for the next hundred years, whereas the USA plans for the next election cycle. In addition, since we have off-set mid-term elections, we are constantly in a state of electioneering on some level.

 

[mazztech]

China plans for the next hundred years, whereas the USA plans for the next election cycle. In addition, since we have off-set mid-term elections, we are constantly in a state of electioneering on some level.

I could not have said this any better myself. I've been living in China now for about two years and my wife is Chinese. The Chinese don't like sudden change instead they prefer slow steady change where they can predict what will happen. This is part of the reason technological advances don't come out of China because if someone stepped out of the 'comfort zone' to do something risky or different, they would be cast as an outsider and no one wants to be an outsider in China.