China’s food security is a ‘political responsibility’ for agricultural areas: Xi Jinping

Chinese leader calls for ‘diversified food supply system’ during visit to northeastern province of Jilin

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The northeast is one of China’s main agricultural areas. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:00pm, 9 Feb 2025Updated: 5:08pm, 9 Feb 2025

Chinese President Xi Jinping has highlighted the importance of food security, saying it was a “political responsibility” for major agricultural areas.

During a tour of northeastern China, Xi also said that “further reform and opening up” was crucial to revitalising the region’s economy, and urged the area to create a better “market-oriented, rule- and law-based, and international” business environment.

“Guaranteeing national food security is the political responsibility of large agricultural and food provinces,” Xi told local officials in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, on Saturday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“Jilin should develop modern agriculture … promote scientific and technological, green, and high-quality agriculture, and establish more agricultural brands,” Xi said, while also calling for it to promote “a diversified food supply system”.

China’s three northeastern provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning – are one of the country’s most important grain-producing areas but the former industrial heartland is struggling economically.

Together with Inner Mongolia, the three provinces produce a quarter of the country’s total grain supplies, according to Xinhua.