“China is self-reliant in securing its own food supply; its people now have not only enough to eat, but also a greater range of choices,” said a white paper issued by China’s State Council Information Office on Oct. 14.

It said that with one fifth of the world population, China accounts for a quarter of total global food production.

The white paper, titled Food Security in China, expounds on the country’s efforts and achievements in enhancing food security and its national strategy on food security in the new era. It also gives a full account of the country’s positive contribution to improving global food security and promoting common development, playing an important role in enhancing the international community’s understanding of China’s food security situation.

“As food decides national prosperity and the people’s wellbeing, food security is a major prerequisite for national security,” said the white paper, declaring that “China has the conditions, capabilities and confidence to enhance food security relying on its own efforts.”

China has witnessed tremendous achievements and great changes over the past 70 years. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the country has always regarded food security as a top priority in state governance.

Over the past 70 years, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China has managed to make itself basically self-sufficient in food supply. It now has enough food to feed its nearly 1.4 billion population, and has remarkably improved the people’s nutrition and life quality. China’s food security is a success of worldwide significance.

In particular, since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core has treated food security as a top state issue, and introduced a food security policy of “ensuring basic self-sufficiency of grain and absolute security of staple food”.

In addition, the Chinese government has established a national strategy on food security featuring self-sufficiency based on domestic grain production, guaranteed food production capacity, moderate imports, and technological support, thus embarking on a path of food security with Chinese characteristics.

China’s self-reliance in securing its own food supply has been made possible by the Chinese themselves through hard work and development. It is also a key contribution to world food security.

To ensure food security across the country, China sticks to a road to establishing food security in its own way. Based on its own national conditions and food availability, China has implemented the concepts of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and inclusive development, the requirements of high-quality development, and a national food security strategy for a new era.

China has steadily increased its grain production capacity, protected and mobilized the enthusiasm for grain cultivation, innovated and improved the food market system, perfected the macroeconomic regulation of the food industry, vigorously developed the grain industry economy, established a comprehensive food science and technology innovation system, and strengthened its management and operations in accordance with the law.

Today, step by step, China has established a food security guarantee system at a very high level characterized by quality, efficiency and sustainability. China’s food security has a stronger guarantee, along a steadier and wider path with Chinese characteristics.

Regarding food security as an important guarantee for world peace and development, China has always played a positive role in safeguarding world food security and actively contributed to global food security governance.

As an active promoter of free trade, China has made important contributions to the sound development of the world food industry and the safeguarding of the global food security by endeavoring to intensify international exchanges and cooperation, firmly upholding the multilateral trading system, and implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN).

In the future, the country will continue adhering to the principle of openness, inclusiveness, equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, strive to build a new pattern of opening up in food industry, work together with other countries to strengthen cooperation and common development, and make unremitting efforts to safeguard world food security.