China maintains stable grain production

Aerial photo taken on May 4, 2023 shows harvesters working in the wheat fields in Shijiawan Village, Youxian District, Mianyang, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

China has maintained steady development in terms of its grain production, said Cong Liang, head of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NFSRA), at a press conference on May 11, 2023.

The country's staple food self-sufficiency rate is above 100%, Cong said at the press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office, adding that the cereal self-sufficiency rate stands above 95%.

China has consistently kept its farmland area above the red line of 1.8 billion mu (about 120 million hectares), and has secured a bumper harvest for the 19th year in a row, Cong said.

The country's per capita share of grain stands at about 480 kg, higher than the internationally recognized security line of 400 kg, Cong noted.

China's annual grain purchase averages at 400 billion kg, according to Cong.

The central government raised the minimum purchase price of wheat by 4 cents per kg this year to 2.34 yuan (about 0.34 U.S. dollars) per kg to protect farmers' benefits, said Lu Jingbo, deputy head of the NFSRA, at the press conference.

China's soybean output rose to a record high of more than 20 million tonnes in 2022, Lu said, well above the Chinese people's food consumption of soybeans, which stands at 13–15 million tonnes per year.

China improves world's largest basic healthcare network

Staff members explain medical insurance policies to residents at a hospital in Jinhua City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 25, 2023.

China is improving the world's largest network for basic healthcare security which covers about 95% of the country's 1.4 billion population.

Hu Jinglin, head of the National Healthcare Security Administration, said at a press conference that between 2018 and 2022, the coverage of the country's basic medical insurance schemes had stayed at around 95% of the total population.

The official said the authorities' efforts to make more medicines treating cancers and rare diseases reimbursable under the medical insurance programs at reasonable prices have saved relevant patients over 500 billion yuan (about 71.46 billion U.S. dollars) in costs.

Hu also noted that over the past five years, relevant authorities maintained a heavy-handed approach to supervising the country's medical insurance funds and doing inspections in various forms, including random and routine checks and special supervision campaigns.

He said the administration would strengthen the supervision efforts, including special crackdowns on fraud in using the funds, and encourage the whole society to partake in the supervision.