China’s Hunger Games
How Beijing turned its food insecurity into geopolitical leverage.
Source: Foreign Affairs
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DW NOTE
Beijing stockpiles grain during global shortages then withholds purchases as a negotiating tool — the 2025 soybean suspension wasn't a trade dispute, it was a demonstration that food dependency flows one direction. China imports more agricultural products than any nation on earth, which means every exporter has built supply chains that assume Chinese demand continues. That assumption is now a liability.