The Chinese Ministry of Commerce released a message on its website on Nov. 1, stating that “families are encouraged to store a certain amount of necessities as needed to meet the needs of daily life and emergencies,” raising concerns in China.
Not long ago, Jinan, China, issued 10,000 emergency kits for personal defense in September, and Jiangsu Province issued a “Suggested List of Emergency Supplies for Families in Jiangsu Province” in late October, reminding residents to stock up on emergency supplies. The combination of these messages has led many Chinese to believe that war is imminent across the Taiwan Strait, leading to a recent rush to buy rice, flour and oil in some Chinese cities.
The rush was reported in Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, Changzhou and Qidong, Jiangsu Province, and Bengbu, Anhui Province, with long lines of people waiting to check out at supermarkets. Supermarkets’ hundreds of carts were not enough, some people buy 600 pounds of rice at once, rice, flour and oil were snapped up.
Commerce bureaus in many places urged that the general public should not be overly nervous and need not blindly hoard goods and cause unnecessary waste. On the 2nd, Zhu Xiaoliang, Director of the Department of Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, said that from the current situation, the supply of daily necessities in all places is sufficient and the supply can be fully guaranteed. He explained that the previous reminder was only routinely issued and is related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To appease emotions, China’s Ministry of Agriculture held a press conference on the 4th, and the person in charge said that the recent general increase in vegetable prices in China is due to multiple factors, and the total supply of vegetables nationwide is sufficient.
According to reports, during the past outbreaks of the pandemic, both officials and the supply side (e.g. supermarkets) were propagating not to panic and not to hoard, while this reminder from the Ministry of Commerce seems to be a departure from the norm, which is an important reason for the rush.
In any case, countless Chinese believe that a war in the Taiwan Strait is near, but others believe that China is not yet fully prepared, with important weapons such as amphibious landing ships not yet in service in sufficient numbers and some of China’s high-tech products still heavily dependent on the United States, so a war will be fought at least two or three years from now.