Mr. Yuan Longping's brainchild was stolen, and the Chinese's rice bowl was about to be taken by foreign countries. In order to stop the Chinese from starving, Yuan Longping spent his whole life researching hybrid rice, but he did not expect that some people would be mad and sell the precious parental rice seeds to foreign spy and intelligence agencies. When this news came to light, it undoubtedly sparked the anger of the people of the whole country, why? Because these seeds are vital to China's food security. It is even called a grain chip. Why is this espionage case so scary to think about like never before? And why is it that even a small seed is intelligence? Now let's talk about it.
The initiator was Zhu, the general manager of an agricultural science and technology company, who not only made huge profits from this, but also established a new agricultural technology company after he succeeded, and continued to sell high-quality parental rice seeds from the mainland abroad on a large scale. Zhu's methods are very cunning, in order to evade supervision, he carefully camouflaged the rice seeds, put the parent seeds in other export containers, and packed them in cardboard boxes to hide people's eyes. But this can't escape the eyes of the authorities after all. After the trial of the case, Zhu was sentenced to one year and six months in prison. Regarding this verdict, netizens shouted: The punishment is too light.
Think about Mr. Yuan Longping, in order to feed 1.4 billion people, running all year round, bending over the ground to inspect rice in the wind and sun, and almost everyone in the team was injured in the waist due to bending over for a long time. And Mr. Yuan Longping has not retired until he is over 80 years old, and thanks to the efforts of several generations, we have today's results, so why should we secretly give them to foreign countries for enjoyment? When they are full, they come out to sell their ancestors, and these people really should be punished to death!
Simply put, it is to select those healthy, well-growing, high-yielding plants as parents, and let them cross to produce new seeds. These new seeds have the good characteristics of their parents, such as higher yields, better disease resistance, and so on. "Tiger fathers have no dogs", this saying is very suitable for hybrid rice. If you want to grow good rice, choosing the right parents is the key.
Why is this espionage case unprecedentedly scary? Why is it that seeds are intelligence? Because the importance of seeds in the agricultural field is comparable to that of "chips", and the secrecy of their parental materials is of paramount importance. If key seed technologies fall into foreign hands, it threatens not only China's interests, but also global food security. Imagine if someone used the exported seeds to synthesize specific genetically modified viruses for different ethnic groups, it could wipe out a people silently for hundreds of years. Just like the smallpox brought by the Europeans back then, it almost erased the existence of the Indians. Therefore, the potential of seeds as a weapon is staggering. It could lead to the disappearance of entire peoples, making the weaponization potential of seeds more insidious and terrifying than nuclear weapons.
Why is the world's eyes on China's hybrid rice? Because China's hybrid rice is so strong! And the economic benefits are huge. By 2020, China's total rice production will reach the world's first, and hybrid rice technology has been planted in Asia, America, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil and other countries. China's hybrid rice alone has produced enough food to feed an additional 80 million people, which is almost as much as the combined population of Italy and Ukraine.
The Japanese tried to monopolize the Asian grain market with the help of hybrid rice technology, but failed to industrialize it due to a lack of suitable wild seeds. Due to the lack of high-yielding rice seeds, Vietnam has had to fall into an import trap set by international grain traders. In 1974, American scientists came to China and collected large quantities of wild soybeans. These soybean seeds are used by Monsanto to breed high-yielding soybeans and have been patented in 101 countries. This has led to a dilemma for global agriculture because of the low yield and high cost of seeds without Monsanto, and once these seeds are used, they have to pay expensive royalties and rely on them for a long time.
Monsanto has used this tactic to control agriculture in countries like Argentina. In 2003, the international grain giants turned their attention to Chinese soybeans, crushing the domestic soybean production and processing industry through joint dumping and market operations. Without Yuan Longping and his hybrid rice technology to protect this last line of defense, our food security would not be possible. So, Yuan Longping and other top Chinese rice experts are a thorn in the side of the international grain giants, because with them, these giants make a lot less money. So, they have to get the Chinese hybrid rice seeds anyway, even if they steal them.
But you don't have to worry too much, since the soybean war, the domestic attention to food security has increased unprecedentedly, and it is almost impossible for the internal ghost to get close to the core technology. In addition, China's breeding technology has developed rapidly, and we began to send rice seeds into space more than 30 years ago, and now Chinese rice can grow for 120 days on the Tiangong space station. We have already bred hundreds of new varieties using space breeding technology. Since China is the only country with an independent space station, even if the international grain giants get our seeds, they can't keep up with us.
China is a major grain producer, and there is a huge demand for seeds. We are the second largest seed country in the world. When it comes to seeds, we're generally secure. But in some areas, we also face some challenges. For example, soybean and corn yields are only about 60 percent of the world's advanced level. Mainland vegetable seeds are mostly imported, especially medium and high-end varieties. China's seed industry started late and its competitiveness is not strong. There are two of the world's top 10 seed enterprises in China, but most of them are small enterprises and have poor competitiveness.
In order to improve the seed industry, the mainland has launched a seed industry revitalization action. It is planned to achieve a major breakthrough in 10 years. In recent years, the mainland has introduced a number of seed industry policies. Breeding progress is not only a matter for the country. Seeds are in everyone's interest. As citizens, we should pay attention to the importance of seeds, resist seed infringement, and create a good environment for breeding and research and development.