The Economist - USA (2022-03-12)

The Economist March 12th 2022 China 37

FoodinChina

About face

N

o banquetinChinaiscompletewith­

outthehostloudlycallingformore

food,evenwhenitisclearthatnoonecan

eat another bite. Whether at business

mealsorfamilygatherings,toleavea clean

plateistoimplythatthehostprovidedtoo

little.Culturalissuesof“face”alsoleadto

bigservings:everyonewantsto bemore

generous than their neighbour. Now,

though,thesedeep­rootednormsarebe­

ingchallengedfromthetop.

Soonafterhecametopowerin2013,

China’s president,Xi Jinping, recounted

hisownexperienceofhungerduringChi­

na’sGreatFamineof1959­61.Evenathis

eliteboardingschool,dinnermeantonly

soup.Healsospokeofleantimesduring

the Cultural Revolution from 1966­76,

whenhewentmonthswithout“knowing

thetasteofmeat”.Suchhardshipbredfru­

galhabitsinpeopleofhisgeneration.

Butafter 40 yearsofeconomicreform,

Chinaisnowthelandofplenty—andthe

landofwaste.Precisemeasurementishard

andestimatesvarywidely.Speakingata

conferencein2020,ChenShaofeng,anex­

pertattheChineseAcademyofSciences,

reckoned that the country’s net annual

foodlosscomprisedarounda thirdofthe

world’stotal.A studypublishedlastyearin

Nature, a leadingscientificjournal,saidit

amountedto350mtonnes(thoughitsaid

thataccountedforjustovera quarterofthe

world’stotal).Evenatthelowerrangeof

theestimates,wasteinthefood­servicein­

dustry(meaningrestaurants,canteensand

dining halls)wouldamount to17m­18m

tonnesannually,enoughtofeed tensof

millionsofpeople.

In 2020 MrXicalledChina’sfood­waste

problem“shockinganddistressing”,fram­

ingitintermsoffoodsecurity.A yearlater

his government enacted an “anti­food

waste”  law.  It  is  a  mish­mash  of  worthy

edicts, such as rules on grain storage, and

wacky  ones,  such  as  a  ban  on  streaming

mukbang (binge­eating  performances),  a

phenomenon that originated in South Ko­

rea.  Violators  may  be  fined  as  much  as

100,000  yuan  ($15,800)  and  slapped  with

administrative punishments. 

Much  of  the  law  is  designed  to  cajole

the public into better habits, such as order­

ing  “in  moderation”  and  eating  “in  a  civi­

lised and healthy” way, particularly at spe­

cial occasions. A survey by government re­

searchers  reported  in  2020  that  around

40%  of  the  food  served  at  wedding  ban­

quets,  business  meals  and  social  dinners

was  wasted.  The  banqueting  culture  dis­

plays  “a  bad  atmosphere  of  ostentatious­

ness,  lavishness,  and  concern  for  face”,

said the People’s Daily, the official organ of

the Communist Party.

Mr  Xi  and  other  officials  have  started

promoting what they call “clean plate” be­

haviour.  The  new  law  calls  on  restaurants

to make it easier for guests to take leftovers

home.  It  gives  businesses  cover  to  hit

wasteful  diners  with  extra  charges  or  re­

ward  frugal  ones,  for  example  with  dis­

counts or parking vouchers. 

Among  the  first  to  fall  foul  of  the  law,

just weeks after it took effect, was a popu­

lar streaming service called iqiyi. One of its

talent  shows  encouraged  fans  to  vote  for

their  favourite  performers  using  codes

printed  inside  the  bottle  caps  of  a  milk

drink. This led to an outcry over those who,

in pursuit of the caps, bought and dumped

the drink in large quantities. The show was

ordered to stop production. 

While  much  of  the  public  attention

around the law has focused on getting con­

sumers  to  waste  less,  efforts  to  improve

practice  among  suppliers  will  be  just  as

important.  According  to  the  study  in  Na-

ture, half of China’s food waste occurs not

long  after  harvest,  when  it  is first pro­

cessed and stored. Food waste, theauthors

write, is a “farm­to­fork” problem.n

B EIJING

Chinaisclampingdownonwaste

uary  he  co­wrote  an  op­ed  warning  that
China had set itself up for disaster. Its vac­
cines offer limited protection against Omi­
cron,  relatively  few  people  have  natural
immunity and China’s health system is not
equipped  to  handle  a  large  wave.  Hong
Kong  is  a  harbinger  of  what  will  come  if
China does not change tack, says Dr Oster­
holm. Omicron has overwhelmed the city,
where  hundreds  of  mostly  unvaccinated
and old people are dying each day.
It is one thing for foreigners to call for
change, but lately China’s doctors and epi­
demiologists  have  also  hinted  that  a  new
approach is needed. Though they continue
to swear by the zero­covid policy in public,
they  are  quietly  changing  what  “zero”
means. Since late last year Liang Wannian,
a  top  Chinese  epidemiologist,  has  been
telling  state  media  that  China’s  new  “dy­
namic zero” policy does not mean zero in­
fections and that the most stringent mea­
sures  will  not  last  forever.  The  policy
means  having  zero  tolerance  for  slow  re­
sponses to outbreaks, he says.

Learning to coexist
The long­term goal is to live with the virus,
wrote Zeng Guang, the former chief scien­
tist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Con­
trol and Prevention, on Weibo, China's ver­
sion of Twitter, last month. He said a “Chi­
nese  roadmap  to  coexistence  with  the  vi­
rus”  would  soon  be  revealed.  For  such  a
strategy to work, China would have to pro­
duce  better  mrnavaccines  of  its  own,  or
end  its  apparently  political  refusal  to  au­
thorise  effective,  foreign­made  jabs.  Im­
proved  treatments  would  also  help.  And
the  government  would  have  to  worry  less
about  mild  infections.  That  is  broadly  in
line with the change in mindset suggested
by  Zhang  Wenhong,  a  respected  doctor
who runs Shanghai’s covid response. Offi­
cials  should  be  more  precise,  more  scien­
tific,  striking  a  balance  between  prevent­
ing  virus  resurgence  and  protecting  the
economy, he wrote on Weibo.
The politics of all this are complicated.
China  has  taken  great  pride  in  its  covid
strategy,  which  has  seen  it  do  better,  in
terms  both  of  avoiding  deaths  and  of  pre­
serving  economic  growth,  than  any  other
large  country.  Politicians  may  be  loth  to
ease restrictions in the months leading up
to  an  all­important  Communist  Party
meeting later this year, when President Xi
Jinping  is  expected  to  extend  his  rule.  In
Shanghai  even  the  contacts  of  contacts  of
those  infected  are  being  made  to  quaran­
tine for two weeks. That is not a wise use of
medical resources. But it is in line with Mr
Xi’s  orders  to  guard  against  “a  large­scale
epidemic rebound”.
Dr  Zeng’s  post  about  the  Chinese  road
map  to  coexistence  has  disappeared.  But
there  are  indications  that  attitudes  to­
wards  covid  are  changing  in  the  country.

Last summer Dr Zhang was attacked online

by  nationalists  when  he  wrote  that  China

would  eventually  have  to  live  with  the  vi­

rus.  They  accused  him  of  pandering  to

Western  ideas  and  wanting  to  see  people

die.  His  latest  post,  though,  drew  many

supportive  comments.  Scholars  in  touch

with Chinese scientists say some are writ­

ing internal advisories on how the country

could safely drop the zero­covid policy. Ul­

timately  politicians will  decide  if  and

when  a  changeisneeded.  Omicron  may

force their hand. n

A growing worry

Source:JohnsHopkinsUniversityCSSE

China, daily new covid-19 cases, March 8th 2022

1 5 10 20 40 94

No cases

Hong Kong 28,475