Economic And Food Security In The Usa And China

Abstract

The article deals with some national security types in the USA and China and their specific features. Nowadays all developed world countries, including the USA and China have their national programs, laws and measures aimed at providing national security. Economic security is a national security system component part which at the same time constitutes the basis for its other structural components: military, technological, ecological, food security and etc. to be formed and function. The effective economic security system guarantees sovereignty and independence of the country, its stable and sustainable socio-economic development. The organizational and legal criteria for economic and food security regulation were researched in the given countries. The analysis of normative legal acts has revealed the lack of its unification. The main characteristic of economic and food security is that they predetermine all the vital personal, societal and state interests. The authors have analyzed contemporary problems undermining food security and economic stability in the countries mentioned. The article provides insight into the notions of "economic security" and "food security" and the methods used by authorities to ensure the security types in question. As food security is considered to be unattainable in the foreseeable future on the world scale, each state, first of all, aims to provide food security of its population. The authors come to a general conclusion that food security violations weaken national security as a whole, which makes food security, along with economic security, the most significant element of national security of the country.

Keywords: Economic security, food security, national security, national security concept

Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic spread resulted in millions of deaths, economic recession, unemployment and living standards decline. At the same time, international community had to cope with new challenges that require immediate solutions, including the foremost task to develop a set of actions aimed at ensuring national security.

The main problem of economic security is population living standards becoming worse, technological progress delay if compared to leading countries and economic slowdown. Economic security integrates various constituent elements (food, technical, demographic security, etc.) into a unified system that provides timely response to various economic threats.

Food security, as an integral part of national security, has now acquired worldwide importance. Within the system of food security, conditions and mechanisms to counter economic threats, to launch reproduction agricultural process in order to provide basic production for the country and increase its self-sufficient food supply.

Problem Statement

The main problem for the countries in question is the fact terms are not statutory defined. For example, Chinese legislation does not enshrine the concept of "economic security" and does not generally regulate a specific area of economic security, but some supplementary laws aimed at its implementation are adopted. The US legislation does not define food security and includes numerous federal and state acts. Food security problems in the countries mentioned include natural resource depletion, and environmental degradation. Epidemic spread rapidly, food supply has become more complicated, which adversely affected agricultural labor market.

Research Questions

Economic security comes first. China's national security priority is to promote national economic growth, national sovereignty and regime preservation (Andornino, 2019). A number of regulations that determine economic security policy were adopted in China. However, there is not such a notion as “economic security” in PRC law.

The head of the People’s Republic of China is empowered in issues of the country's economic security and guides the authorities that implement state economic security policy. The State Council of the PRC (the Central People's Government) makes administrative and legal acts, and issues regulations and ordinances related to the country's economic security. The PRC Finance Ministry is the national executive agency that implements the macroeconomic policy of the country.

The PRC Ministry of Commerce develops state policy on foreign trade issues as well as regulates import and export issues and protects market competition. The Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China regulates agricultural and environmental issues, which is integrally linked to the country's overall economy. China's Ministry of Industry and Information is responsible for regulating the Internet no major economic operation can be taken without. China's State Security Council sets the overall national security policy.

The leverages used include incentives and accountability for project execution; the latter aimed at monitoring national security more effectively. China's state authorities strive to ensure total protection for state and individuals from various threats (internal and external) with the help of the most effective framework, adopting and improving national and economic security legislation (Kerry, 2021).

The specific features of China's economic development are as follows: low labor costs, simple logistics, readily available resources, almost no environmental costs and high loyalty of the country's leadership to investors, low RMB exchange rate, partly pegged to the dollar. PRC has created a model of economic security regulation, which is characterized by a rigid economic system, high manageability, and a significant level of protection against external risks.

The US authorities have adopted a number of laws regulating economic security, but the term is not fixed, as well as it is in PRC. The US President, departments and bureaus are responsible for the economic security of the country. The National Economic Council, which is part of the US President's Office, coordinates US domestic and foreign economic policy, prepares analytical reports and draft presidential decrees, and monitors policy outcomes.

The highest US legislative body, the US Congress, has developed revised powers to facilitate trade and improve trade routes, create jobs, improve living standards and strengthen partners.

The US Department of Commerce also plays an important role in the development of the country's economic processes, overseeing economic growth within the state and promoting US free trade around the world, as well as carrying out international economic missions.

US Department of the Treasury makes and implements the nation's economic and monetary policy, regulates export and import, controls banking and financial institutions, as well as tax collection and banknote issue.

Economic provisions of the US national security strategy compare favorably with China's economic security concept, because US regulations specify means and methods of ensuring security. Economic security of the US is achieved with resort to military forces. Another feature of US economic security to notice is strengthening its position in the global financial system.

Currently, an important trend of economic security in the US and China is post-epidemic gradual economic recovery and adoption of new laws that support business (Gehrke, 2020). Employment generation, market actors’ functioning, food and energy security and stable production and supply chains are prioritized.

Food security turns to be the second priority. Scientifically proven is direct connection between human health and nutrition (Bassaganya-Riera et al., 2021). Therefore, food security issues should be on the first place for the government. US food security laws do not define food security, although there are numerous federal and regional acts.

In the US, the level of food security is considered much broader than the issue of famine; it concerns high quality and healthy nutrition. The US food security legislation does not define food security, and it consists of numerous federal and state regulations. Therefore, the US Department of Agriculture has developed criteria for household food security levels. High food security is a condition where there are no problems or constraints in access to food. Marginal food security is a condition where there is little cause for concern about food insecurity but there is no change in population nutrition. Low food security implies no famine but means that diverse, high quality diets are unavailable. Very low food security is a critical state in which the population drastically reduces food consumption (famine).

The US food security area is regulated by a system of governmental agencies and various normative instruments. For example, the President of the United States signs legislation on food security passed by the US Senate; the Department of Agriculture implements agriculture and food policy, including food security policy, and is responsible for rural development and agricultural research funding. Food security in the US is overseen by numerous government agencies at different levels: federal, state and local. Two main supervisory bodies in this area are: 1. US Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for the safety and quality of meat, poultry meat and egg processed products. 2. Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for controlling the quality of food, pharmaceuticals, tobacco products, veterinary medicine, as well as food industry, suppliers, and retailers of pharmaceuticals and food products (except meat and eggs). At the state level, food security regulation is carried out by Departments of Health, Agriculture and Environment. Inspection of catering facilities is usually exercised by local health departments.

The PRC White Paper defines food security as “self-sufficiency based on domestic grain production, guaranteed food production capacity, and moderate imports”. The paper outlines the problems and challenges China faces, as well as the ways to overcome them. Besides the White Paper “Food Security in China”, other laws are made to regulate this sphere.

The PRC's food security is ensured by the system of government agencies. The State Council (Government) acts as the supreme executive authority, establishes supervisory bodies in the field and determines their powers. The Ministry of Agriculture is subject to the State Council. The functions of the PRC Ministry of Agriculture include making and implementing economic development policies and strategies, as well as medium-term and long-term plans for agriculture, participating in the development of policies on finance, budgets, taxes, prices, financial insurance, import and export in the field of agriculture, drafting laws and regulations in agriculture and rural economy. The Bureau of Agro-Product Safety and Quality is subject to the Ministry of Agriculture and is responsible for improving the quality and security of agricultural products, assessing risks, publishing information, and monitoring what concerns the quality and security of agricultural products. The Ministry of Finance is directly subordinated to the State Council of China, it draws up and monitors an agricultural development implementation plan together with the Ministry of Agriculture, proposes measures to provide aid, including financial assistance to those affected, and channels such funding aimed at recovering agricultural production. Both agencies make and implement comprehensive agricultural development projects.

The State Council forms the Food Security Committee and determines its functions. The Committee supervises the quality of food produced in China as well as imported food and participates in the development of quality food standards. At the regional level, the local people's governments charged with ensuring food safety in their provinces, are responsible for monitoring food security.

China and the USA actively use the method of boosting agricultural production by constantly increasing subsidies and aids to support farmers (Carranza & Niles, 2019). However, stricter control has been noticed.

Natural resources depletion in the USA and environmental degradation negatively impacted the quality of products manufactured as well as food security that is directly connected with climate change and environmental conditions (Horton et al., 2021). Due to the population urbanization, China had to expand the area of cultivated land, though it seemed to be impossible (Liu et al., 2021). In addition, massive animal diseases, droughts and natural disasters, as well as Covid-19 epidemic made China's food sector unstable (Chen et al., 2020).

Common food security challenges like Covid-19 epidemic that has not directly affected food quality but complicated food supply and negatively affected agricultural labour market (Mardones et al., 2020); environmental issues, agriculture accounting one-fourth of all waste emissions (Carlisle et al., 2019).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research is to perform the analysis of the legal and institutional regulation of national security aimed to find the specific characteristics of economic and food security in the United States and China.

Research Methods

The basis of this research is the analysis of organizational-legal regulation of economic and food security in the given countries by means of comparison. This approach allowed paying special attention to legal regulation of the problem and emphasized its necessity being applied by US and Chinese state bodies. A formal-legal approach applied in this research made it possible to determine economic and food security legal acts’ content for the countries we focus on. Research methods used are the following ones: abstract-logical, structural-functional, and system analysis.

Findings

Cheap low-quality raw materials and unskilled labour often result in poor production quality. Therefore, better control and supervision of production facilities in China by purchasing countries would help to avoid lot returns and heavy fines, which would enhance PRC economic security.

Modern cleaning systems, waste recycling and agriculture innovations could help to solve environmental problems.

Many US enterprises (e.g. Apple, Boeing and Qualcomm) can be moved from Chinese territory to that of the USA, which would increase employment rate and cut transportation fees.

US punitive policy hurts US agricultural producers, it is reasonable to be more cooperative.

Conclusion

All the world challenges connected with COVID-19 undoubtedly influenced the economy of the countries in question and caused them to decline. In such a case legislation of the countries under study is aimed to support economy, trade and business in 2021.

To sum up, it is necessary to note that the problem of economic and food security is rather complex. The main condition providing food security in the USA and China is increasing efficiency of the national agricultural and industrial sector. In order to make unified standards for economic security it is necessary to form a unified regulatory framework, certain areas of activity being distinguished, but achieving the goals set while ensuring economic security.

References

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