How will Beijing bring home the bacon?
Pallavi Aiyar In Beijing It may be the Year of the Pig, according to the Chinese zodiac but the animal is not having much luck in China. Several tens of thousands of pigs in the country have been afflicted by a mysterious disease which combined with a scarcity of hog-feed is leading to skyrocketing pork prices. A Chinese staple, pork’s rising cost if unchecked could provoke the kind of political volatility associated in India with onions. Thus, in recent months the climbing price of the meat has become national news in China causing the leadership in Beijing to scramble in response. Pork Priority Over the last few months the Cabinet has met in emergency sessions to thrash out the pork strategy, municipal governments have been told to subsidise pork purchases for low-income families, farmers are being offered financial incentives to encourage hog-rearing, and the railways have begun to give priority to pig cargo. Even China’s Premier Wen Jiabao made a much publicised visit to a piggery
