again on china

[Jim heartfield]

In message <00dd01bfbb1c$3b27b680$dc348cd4 at ngjones>, M A Jones
<jones118 at lineone.net> writes
>I read yesterday somewhere that if China accedes to the WTO its arable
>agriculture, wheat in partic, will be decimated by cheap imports capturing
>30% + of the doemstic market. One of Lester Brown's assumptions is that
>world grain surpluses would soon be swallowed by Chinese demand IN EXCESS of
>its own (failing) domestic production. What's the stroty here?

Curious argument that the agricultural surpluses are so great that
starvation will result. The Chinese leadership seem very pleased to do
over their unproductive peasantry, who are resistant to restructuring,
by importing cheap foodstuffs. Harsh capitalist medicine, but not
evidence of a natural limit to population growth, as Brown suggests (see
State of the World Atlas, 1999).

-- 
Jim heartfield