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A New Standard for Chinese Mayors’ Performance: Raising Pigs

In order to stabilize the price of pigs, raising pigs has become an important political task in China. Recently, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong and other provinces have established a minimum pig production for the year. Each city has been assigned a quantitative target, which is also becoming an important measure for assessing a mayor’s performance.

At the end of September, the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Department of Hunan Province assigned the task for the minimum pig production for 2019 for each of its 14 cities, with a total of 45 million in the province. In addition, Guangdong and Sichuan have also assigned the mayors with the task of raising pigs. Sichuan’s minimum pig production target for this year is 40.08 million, and Guangdong is 34 million.

African swine fever has caused a large number of pigs in China to die or be culled. For the Chinese people, pork accounts for sixty percent of their meat consumption. Continuous pig price increases are becoming a major economic issue. The Chinese government’s solution? Make is a political task by setting a quantitative target.

In August, Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua asked all local governments to guarantee the stable production of pigs. In particular, he called for 70 percent of pig consumption to come from local production. This goal is also included in the mayor’s performance assessment.

Source: Central News Agency, October 3, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201910030264.aspx