China: Importing Food and Gold
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China is securing food and gold:
Reuters – By Carey Gillam DES MOINES, Feb 16 (Reuters) – China’sleader-in-waiting,Xi Jinping, gathered with U.S. agricultural officials in America’s grainbelt on Thursday and stressed their shared interests in fostering increased trade in farm goods.
Extending his visit to the top U.S. soybean- and corn-growing state of Iowa, Xi and Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Des Moines to kick off what was billed as the first-ever U.S.-China Agricultural Symposium.
US, China to Sign 5-Year Accord on Agriculture Cooperation
BusinessWeek – 16 February 201216 (Bloomberg) — The US and China plan to sign a five-year accord to cooperate on agriculture trade, production and food security…
Financial Times – 16 February 2012By Jack Farchy in London China is set to overtake India this year as the world’s largest consumer of gold, the World Gold Council predicted, underscoring the surge in Chinese demand that has revolutionised the bullion market…China has become an increasingly important driver of the gold price, with large purchases propping up prices late last year as western investors were selling…Chinese gold consumption has already risen by 140 per cent between 2007 and 2011…
China has been going around the world to attempt to secure food supplies for its vast population (China has the highest population of any nation).
It seems to believe that securing multiple sources is safer for it in case of weather problems, trade embargoes, and crop failures that could happen in one or more countries at the same time.
The USA, which owes China over $1 trillion, is anxious to try to sell the Chinese as much as possible. Yet, this could cause the USA problems in times when it has its own food shortages. Not immediately, but perhaps not too long from now, that will happen and the time may come when the USA will have to fulfill some of its obligations to export food when Americans need it. Although this would be a political problem, it may happen and may be the trigger for other problems to hit the USA (cf. Habakkuk 2).
Notice something I posted three years ago (see Drought, Wheat, & China):
No country is immune to the effects of tightening food supplies, not even the United States.
If China turns to the world market for massive quantities of grain, as it recently has done for soybeans, it will undoubtedly look to the United States, which dominates world grain exports. For US consumers, the prospect of competing for the US grain harvest with 1.3 billion Chinese consumers with fast-rising incomes is a nightmare scenario. It would be tempting for the United States to restrict exports, but this is not an option with China which now holds well over one trillion US dollars. Like it or not, US consumers will share their grain with Chinese consumers regardless of how high food prices rise.
If the food crisis worsens, national restrictions on grain exports coupled with various bilateral arrangements could tie down much of the exportable supply of grain, making it increasingly difficult if not impossible for weaker, less affluent countries to find grain to import. Many countries heavily dependent on imports could be left out, and the result would be hundreds of millions of desperate people. Desperate people do desperate things: They riot, they fight over food, they overthrow governments, and they mass migrate to more food-secure countries.
(The Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Spiegel – Feb 11, 2009 http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,606937,00.html).
One of the many problems of going into debt is that the creditors expect to be paid back.
The more wheat that China buys, the higher the cost to American consumers. Furthermore, China has the potential to buy up all the wheat that the USA produces–and while politically I do not believe this will be allowed to happen–if it did, we could have starvation in the USA. And if the politicians stop China from making those purchases, the entire USA economy could massively collapse if China dumped its USA dollar (including treasury bills and even stocks) holdings in retaliation.
The USA has embarked on slippery and very dangerous path with its borrow our way out of this crisis mentality. And while I believe it may work for a while, it is setting the USA up for sudden destruction.
The USA is entering into agreements that its residents might regret within the next five years. The selling of food is fine when there is an abundance, the fulfilling of food export agreements is dangerous in times of food shortages. The USA is not immune to food shortages and it may have the “perfect storm” of weather problems, gmo problems (genetically-modified or engineered “foods), pestilences, one or more “dirty bombs”, emps, and/or other disasters that few expect, but that Jesus seemed to predict (Matthew 24:4-8).
China has concerns about its US dollar holdings and has taken steps to try to spend/invest what it can for resources such as food and energy, and items that tend to support financial stability like gold.
The reality is that much of what China itself appears to be doing is consistent with what the late Deng Xiaoping once expressed,
China must hide brightness and nourish obscurity . . . to bide our time and build up our capabilities (Source: Times Online).
China is moving forward while the USA is not. And while China will have problems, the USA will have even more in the end time. Selling food is fine, but getting involved in contracts and debt, like the USA is doing, is dangerous. Americans will likely realize this later.
Some articles of possibly related interest may include:
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 1: Genesis and Chinese Characters This article provides information showing that the Chinese peoples must have known about various accounts in the Book of Genesis up until their dispersion after the Tower of Babel.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 2: The Sabbath and Some of God’s Witness in China When did Christianity first come to China? And is there early evidence that they observed the seventh day sabbath?
Asia in Prophecy What is Ahead for China? Is it a “King of the East”? What will happen to nearly all the Chinese, Russians, and others of Asia? China in prophecy, where?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Will the Anglo-Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves? Will the lands of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand be divided? What about Jerusalem? What does Bible prophecy teach? Are there non-biblical prophecies that support this idea? Who will divide those lands? Who will end up with the lands and the people?
The Plain Truth About Gold in Prophecy. How Should a Christian View Gold? What do economists and the Bible teach about gold? Gold and silver may drop in value. Inflation/deflation? What do Christians need to know about gold?
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