Food Security as a Tool for Sociopolitical Control in China

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power 100 years ago promising to protect the nation from threats to its security and development. The CCP has since worked to prevent unrest from food insecurity through policies that encourage agricultural production and, until recently, required 95 percent in grain self-sufficiency. Yet, food insecurity threatens the power of the party as arable lands decrease from pollution and floods destroy agricultural yields. It is through these measures to modernize and protect China that the CCP derives its legitimacy to rule. The correlation between food security and mitigating instability in China leads to the following research question: what method does the CCP use to suppress sociopolitical instability and limit human rights in China? Using a human security lens to analyze historical and contemporary texts, this paper finds that the CCP utilizes food security as a tool to validate the regimes authority and justify violating human rights, with the goal of suppressing sociopolitical instability. The Communist Party defends human rights abuses to the international community by stating that China has a right to peaceful development and must take necessary steps to ensure stability when human rights do not align with domestic demands. The justification for violating human rights is echoed in measures to protect food security in China, using rule by law as a tool for social control. In addition, diminishing environmental conditions in China exacerbated by climate change have prompted the government to seek out novel channels to acquire food, such as through infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. The pursuit to ensure food supply in China underscores the potential for geopolitical and resource security challenges in the region as natural resources are constrained by environmental change.