SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A23
BY CLAIRE PARKERForeign ministers from the
Group of Seven nations appealed
to Russia to free up sea export
routes for Ukrainian grain and
agricultural products critical to
feeding the world, as food prices
rise and the World Food Program
warns of “catastrophic” conse-
quences if Ukrainian ports re-
main blocked.
“We must not be naive. Russia
has now expanded the war
against U kraine to many states as
a war of grain,” German Foreign
Minister Annalena Baerbock said
at a news conference Saturday
after the G-7 meetings. “It is not
collateral damage, it is an instru-
ment in a hybrid war that is
intended to weaken cohesion
against Russia’s war.”
Baerbock, who hosted the
three-day gathering of top diplo-
mats in Weissenhaus, Germany,
said the group was searching for
alternative routes to transport
grain out of Ukraine as the threat
of a global hunger crisis mounts.
Up to 50 million people will
face hunger in the coming
months unless Ukrainian grain is
released, Baerbock said, accord-
ing to the Associated Press.
About 2 8 million tons of grain are
stuck in Ukrainian ports block-
aded by Russian forces.
As the conflict in Ukraine
grinds on, some countries have
looked to India as an alternative
grain source. But after making
moves to expand its agricultural
export industry, India on Friday
banned wheat exports, citing its
own food security concerns.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine
in February, it has all but cap-
tured the port city of Mariupol,
where Russian forces have sur-
rounded the last remaining
Ukrainian fighters holed up in
the Azovstal steel plant.
Russia has also taken control
of the Kherson region on the
Black Sea and fired missiles at
the major port city of Odessa,
which remains under Ukrainian
control. Ukraine closed its ports
in late February amid the fight-
ing, and Russian warships and
floating mines have prevented
them from reopening.
Ukrainian President Volod-
ymyr Zelensky said Monday that
such a halt to port operations had
likely not been seen in Ukraine
since World War II. Foreign Min-
ister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday
that Ukraine was willing to take
part in talks with Russia to
unblock grain supplies but that
his government had received “no
positive feedback” from officials
in Moscow, the AP reported.
David Beasley, head of the
United Nations World Food Pro-
gram, spoke with U.S. lawmakers
and Biden administration offi-
cials in Washington this week to
emphasize the urgency of re-
opening the ports and address-
ing the global food crisis.
Ukraine grows enough food to
feed 400 million people annually,
and 30 percent of the world’s
supply of wheat comes from Rus-
sia and Ukraine, according to the
World Food Program.
“The ports are critical to food
security globally,” Beasley told
The Washington Post. “It will be
catastrophic if we don’t have
those ports opened up and mov-
ing food supplies around the
world.”
On an average working day,
some 3,00 0 train carloads of
grain arrive at Ukrainian ports,
where they are stored in silos
and, in peacetime, shipped
across the Black Sea and through
the Bosporus and then around
the world, Beasley said. With
exports blocked, the silos are full
— meaning there is no place to
store grain from the next harvest,
due to take place in July and
August.
The impact of the blockage
will be felt in both rich and poor
countries, Beasley said, and it isalready affecting market volatili-
ty. The war has driven prices of
wheat, cooking oil and other
commodities t o record highs, a nd
the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture projected global wheat sup-
plies would fall next crop year.
Countries in the Middle East
and Africa are especially reliant
on Ukrainian grain. Egypt gets
between 75 and 85 percent of its
wheat supply from Ukraine and
Russia, according to U.N. statis-
tics. Somalia and Benin depend
on Russia and Ukraine for all of
their imported wheat.
The U.N. has warned that food
insecurity could e xacerbate exist-
ing conflicts and economic crises
in these regions.
Operational costs for the
World Food Program to assist the
same number of people have
increased by more than $70 mil-
lion per month due in part to
rising food prices, Beasley said.
The program, which provides
food aid to 125 million people on
any given day, w ill have to further
scale back rations. In Yemen,
which has experienced an acute
hunger crisis for years, the pro-gram has already halved the food
rations of 8 million people.
“We’re running out of money,
pricing is killing us, we’re billions
short and we’re now having to
decide which children eat, which
children don’t eat, which chil-
dren live, which children die. It’s
not right,” Beasley said.
The World Food Program,
which buys half of its wheat from
Ukraine, has asked Congress for
$5 billion in additional interna-
tional food assistance. An emer-
gency funding package for
Ukraine that contains that aid
passed the House on Tuesday
night but a vote in the Senate was
pushed to next week.
Russia stepped up missile at-
tacks on Odessa this week, rais-
ing fresh concerns about the
security of the port. In a state-
ment on Saturday, G-7 foreign
ministers called on Russia to
“cease immediately its attacks on
key transport infrastructure in
Ukraine, including ports.”
Beasley, who visited Odessa
this month as the city came
under attack, said it was encour-
aging that Russian attacks havenot targeted actual port infra-
structure there so far.
Russia, also a major grain
producer and the world’s leading
wheat exporter, stands to gain
from continuing to disrupt
Ukraine’s exports. The G-7 minis-
ters pledged Saturday that sanc-
tions against Russia would not
“target essential exports of food
and agricultural inputs to devel-
oping countries.”
The G-7 consists of Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the United Kingdom and the
United States. The countries also
promised to ramp up their con-
tributions to the World Food
Program and other relief organi-
zations.
Ukraine has also accused Rus-
sia of intentionally attacking
Ukrainian grain facilities and
stealing grain from occupied re-
gions for export. A State Depart-
ment spokesperson confirmed to
The Post that Russian attacks
had damaged at least six grain
storage facilities in eastern
Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Beasley said he is
“calling every friend I know thathas any influence with Russia” to
urge Russian President Vladimir
Putin to allow the resumption of
grain shipments from Ukraine.
The G-7 ministers said Satur-
day they were seeking other op-
tions to get Ukrainian grain to
countries in need, including the
establishment of “agricultural
solidarity lanes.” The European
Commission laid out a plan on
Thursday to create such trans-
port corridors, which would ease
ground shipments of Ukrainian
grain to Europe.
Trucks and trains can only
carry a fraction of the grain that
typically ships out of Ukraine’s
ports, Beasley said. And Russia
continues to attack train lines
and transportation infrastruc-
ture across Ukraine. But Baer-
bock said Saturday that “every
ton we can get out will help a bit
to get to grips with this hunger
crisis,” the Financial Times re-
ported.
“In the situation we’re in, e very
week counts,” Baerbock said.Victoria Bisset and John Hudson
contributed to this report.Calls grow for Russia to free up Ukrainian ports, sea routes to export grain
BY CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD,
LYRIC LI
AND VIC CHIANGIn a surreal scene on the front
steps of a locked-down Shanghai
apartment complex, a resident in
a bright red rain jacket, mask
and face visor lectured a team of
hazmat-clad Chinese officials
about the limits of state power.
With the vocal support of his
neighbors, he expressed frustra-
tion over the quarantine mea-
sures locking people in their
homes, arguing that state au-
thority is bound by what the law
authorizes. “I want to ask you,
which clause of which of our
country’s laws gives you this
power?” he said, according to a
video of the incident posted
Monday and widely shared on-
line.
The impromptu legal lecture
comes amid a fresh wave of
resentment over state overreach
in Shanghai, where, in a bid to
end China’s worst coronavirus
outbreak since 2020, the city
government last week further
tightened restrictions in certain
districts. In some areas, residen-
tial buildings and shops have
been boarded up. Officials con-
fiscated house keys to prevent
isolation jailbreaks, while the
empty homes of those put into
centralized quarantine have
been turned upside down as they
are doused with disinfectant.
The escalating disruption of
daily life from China’s “zero-
covid” policy, promoted at the
highest level, risks alienating a
population that has come to rely
on what some scholars describe
as the Communist Party’s implic-
it contract with the public: The
leadership supports the econo-
my, allows people to get rich and
stays out of everyday affairs in
exchange for political quies-
cence.
“The tacit agreement between
us has been broken,” said a
Shanghai-based Chinese j ournal-
ist who spoke on the condition of
anonymity for fear of repercus-
sions. “Originally, you let me live
a happy life, I wouldn’t do things
against your interests, but that
kind of trust no longer exists. I
think that could be the most
serious issue [caused by lock-
down].”
While policymakers appeargenuinely concerned about a
possible “tsunami” of infections
and deaths from the coronavirus
spreading unchecked, the choice
to stick with the current policy
was also made because President
Xi Jinping believes China reach-
ing zero cases demonstrates the
superiority of its governance
over Western democracies, par-
ticularly the United States, ac-
cording to Lynette Ong, a profes-
sor of Chinese politics at the
University of To ronto.
“He pushed himself into a
corner, where it’s difficult to
walk the policy back,” she said.
The politicized nature of the
zero-covid policy is raising fears
about Xi’s style of personal rule,
which increasingly relies on
mass mobilizations where every
person is expected to follow
orders. That reassertion of the
party into the lives of everydaycitizens is drawing comparisons
to dark periods of China’s past
and sparking fears that there is
no longer space in society to live
a quiet life uninterrupted by
ideologically motivated cam-
paigns.
The Shanghai lockdown esca-
lation was prompted by a meet-
ing earlier this month of the
powerful Politburo Standing
Committee of the Communist
Party where Xi doubled down on
the policy of total intolerance for
coronavirus infections in the
general population. The meeting
concluded that anyone who
doubts or denies the approach
should be “struggled” against.
Shortly afterward, Shanghai
began reversing what had been a
gradual, if uneven, relaxation. Li
Qiang, the local party secretary,
described the new measures as
“military orders,” invoking a
practice in which army officers
pledge to either deliver success
or accept martial punishment for
failure.
“It definitely has overtones of
the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in the
1950 s where politics is in com-
mand,” said Carl Minzner, a sen-
ior fellow for China studies at the
Council on Foreign Relations,
referring to Mao Zedong’s disas-
trous campaign to catch up with
industrialized nations’ steel and
grain production that ended in
mass famine.
One of the defining tragedies
of Mao’s rule was skewed policy,
due in part to fearful low-level
officials reporting a rosier pic-
ture than reality to superiors.
The famine in the wake of the
great leap was exacerbated by
localities covering up their grain
shortages. Critics say Xi, too,
could make such misjudgments,as dissenting voices are stifled
and local officials tell higher-ups
what they want to hear.
In the post-Mao reform period
beginning in 197 8, party leaders
began leaving day-to-day control
to the experts, which allowed
more openness and discussion.
But since Xi has taken charge,
the party has reasserted itself.
“That has a deadening effect
on discussion within the party
state,” Minzner said. “People
start to parrot what they think
the top leader wants to hear. And
lo and behold, the policymaking
becomes very brittle and very
extreme.”
Speculation has swirled about
the political ramifications of
public anger over lockdowns
ahead of a leadership reshuffle in
the fall, when many of the party’s
most senior o fficials are e xpected
to be replaced.
Some analysts say the back-
lash in Shanghai will make it
harder for Li, the 62-year-old
party boss who is considered a Xi
ally, to secure a top position on
the Politburo Standing Commit-
tee.
Aside from tracking possible
promotions or demotions, how-
ever, most expect Xi’s direct
control over decision-making to
be increased at the congress.
This could take the form of a new
title such as “party chairman” or
“people’s leader.” Xi’s personal
political ideology may also be
elevated in status so it is on par
with that of party founder Mao.
Yet acts of violence by police
and low-level officials enforcing
the restrictions in Shanghai have
led to online comparisons with
the chaos and trauma of the Mao
era’s later years. In a video post-
ed to the microblog Weibo onMonday, a homeowner wanders
through his apartment noting
everything that went missing
during disinfection, including
food from the fridge, bedsheets,
curtains and clothes.
The most-liked comment be-
neath the video read, “A h, I’ve
seen this in history books, it’s
search and confiscation,” a refer-
ence to a common practice dur-
ing the Cultural Revolution in
the late 1960s, when radical “red
guards” would raid homes in
search of banned items.
While Xi’s style of governing
remains distinct from Mao’s
preference for chaotic mass
movements, scholars say both
leaders share a preference for
political campaigns to mobilize
the whole society.
In a sign of how fed up
residents are, middle-class
Shanghaiers like the man in the
red raincoat are now appealing
to the rule of law to push back
against state overreach.
He was possibly inspired by
Chinese jurist L uo Xiang, who, in
a lecture that went viral, ex-
plained how state power should
extend only as far as what is
codified in law. In video after
video, residents began echoing
Luo to demand legal justification
for the harsh measures.
But C hina’s top leaders a re less
interested in the law than in
achieving the outcomes they de-
sire — even if it means breaking
that law — the Shanghai-based
journalist warned: “Chinese poli-
tics is about results. Law is about
procedure, but they don’t care
about procedure. They just want
results.”Eva Dou in Shenzhen, China,
contributed to this report.Xi’s strict covid policies prompt rumblings of discontent
LIU JIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Volunteers set up a tent for coronavirus testing in a residential
compound under lockdown in Shanghai’s Pudong district Friday.The Communist Party’s
interference in daily life
evokes bad memories12-MONTH CD
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