In its latest campaign to rein in excesses across all aspects of society, China is now targeting overindulgence of food.
Beijing yesterday released an action plan that tells diners not to order more than they need and encourages consumers to report restaurants for wasting food. It also advocates buffets for official receptions rather than banquets, while banning companies from hosting lavish feasts “in the name of meetings and trainings.”
The plan through 2025 follows calls by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to reduce food waste and bolster food security.
By tackling discarded leftovers, China could also reduce its dependence on imports and its vulnerability to disruptions. The effort comes as Chinese purchases of farm products from corn to wheat to beef have continued to grow year-on-year to record levels.
China is also facing soaring prices of some food items, such as vegetables, which threatens to become a broader inflationary problem. The rally has caught the attention of regulators, with the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs pledging last month to crack down on vegetable hoarding and to ensure stable supply. Egg and pork prices have also risen.
Under the plan, catering services have to remind customers to order the right amount of food and to provide the option of smaller servings. Households are urged to purchase food on demand and to make “full use” of ingredients.
Other details include improving drying conditions and capacity for grain production, and to manage the electricity supply needed for that; support and guidance for farmers on proper grain storage; strengthening infrastructure to reduce grain loss during transportation; promoting replacement and substitution of corn and soybean meal in pig and chicken feed; making use of alternative resources such as other crops or by-products of grain processing; and regulating the development of the biofuel industry that uses food as raw materials.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) removed former minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) from his post after an investigation concluded that he had conducted an affair and fathered a child while serving as ambassador to the US, the Wall Street Journal reported. Top officials were told in August that a CCP inquiry into Qin uncovered “lifestyle issues,” the newspaper reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the situation that it did not describe. That phrase usually means sexual misbehavior of some type in the parlance of Chinese officialdom. Two of the people said the affair led to the birth of a child in
GUNNED DOWN: The Canadian PM said there were credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey on June 18 India yesterday dismissed allegations that its government was linked to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada as “absurd,” expelling a senior Canadian diplomat and accusing Canada of interfering in India’s internal affairs. It came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described what he called credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an advocate of Sikh independence from India who was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, and Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a
SECURITY: Wang met with the US national security adviser in Malta over the weekend, with the US side noting the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday headed to Russia for security talks after two days of meetings with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan over the weekend in Malta. China’s top foreign policy official will be in Russia until Thursday for a round of China-Russia strategic security consultations, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement. The US and China are at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China has refrained from taking sides in the war, saying that while a country’s territory must be respected, the West needs to consider Russia’s security concerns about NATO’s
LOST BATTLE: The Varroa mite, which Canberra has called the ‘most serious pest’ to face bees, would cause serious economic damage, an ecologist said Australia yesterday abandoned its fight to eradicate the destructive Varroa mite, an invasive parasite responsible for the collapse of honeybee populations across the planet. Desperate to keep Varroa out of the country, authorities have destroyed more than 14,000 infected beehives since the tiny red-brown pest was first detected north of Sydney in June last year. The government said its US$64 million eradication plan could not stop the mite from spreading, and the country’s beekeepers should now prepare to live with the incursion. “The recent spike in new detections have made it clear that the Varroa mite infestation is more widespread and has