Cherry picked understanding from conditions 10+ years ago.
PRC agriculture has absolute food security in terms of domestic calorie production and was net fertilizer exporter via coal gasification in 2010s but turn importer after coal crack down due to green initiatives. Coal back on menu due to recent geopolitics that prioritize energy/good security
PRC can feed herself with domestic inputs worst case scenario. With surplus if she moves to mechanical farming - current 200m farm household basically make job programs with lots of farmers pursuing cash crop instead of efficient calories.
Finally discussion on import dependency is really dog whistle for what happens if US tries to cut off PRC SLOCs in which case it's really a discussion on resource security not autarky. And reality is US is as vulnerable as PRC now - we are in era of advanced rocketry where 150 blown up refineries sets US energy and agriculture into stone age, highly automated ag especially vulnerable. In a peer war where homeland critical infra is being degraded, US can feed population as much as PRC, which is to say not at all. All that shale and blessed farm land means nothing if you can't process what you extract. Blocking shipping is just down the logistics chain than hitting production facilities themselves. The entire fortress america narrative collapsed once US adversaries like PRC gained global strike and now US is vulnerable like everyone else.
PRC agriculture has absolute food security in terms of domestic calorie production and was net fertilizer exporter via coal gasification in 2010s but turn importer after coal crack down due to green initiatives. Coal back on menu due to recent geopolitics that prioritize energy/good security PRC can feed herself with domestic inputs worst case scenario. With surplus if she moves to mechanical farming - current 200m farm household basically make job programs with lots of farmers pursuing cash crop instead of efficient calories.
Finally discussion on import dependency is really dog whistle for what happens if US tries to cut off PRC SLOCs in which case it's really a discussion on resource security not autarky. And reality is US is as vulnerable as PRC now - we are in era of advanced rocketry where 150 blown up refineries sets US energy and agriculture into stone age, highly automated ag especially vulnerable. In a peer war where homeland critical infra is being degraded, US can feed population as much as PRC, which is to say not at all. All that shale and blessed farm land means nothing if you can't process what you extract. Blocking shipping is just down the logistics chain than hitting production facilities themselves. The entire fortress america narrative collapsed once US adversaries like PRC gained global strike and now US is vulnerable like everyone else.