Current Status and Challenges of Water, Energy, and Food in China and Resource Sharing Through International Trades

Since the launch of the policy of reform and opening up in 1978, China's rapid economic and population growth has caused enormous changes in water, food, and energy consumption and production. This chapter reviewed the recent increase in production, importation, and consumption in the water, food, and energy sectors in China. In the water sector, the general decrease in per capita water resources driven by population growth, increases in water shortages in northern regions, and stabilized total water consumption and agricultural water use as a result of strong policy intentions were analysed. In the energy sector, the review suggested a strong increase in energy consumption, a shift from being an exporting country to being an importing country, especially in gas and crude oil, and China’s ambition to achieve peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. In the food sector, it reveals the rapid growth in China’s total food production from 354 million tons in 1982 to 618 million tons in 2017, helping to solve China’s large population living in poverty. Even though the production of major crops continues to increase, the shift from being a society with a grain diet to being a society with a mixture of grain and meat consumption is causing a quick growth in soybean imports from the US, Brazil, and other countries. Studying the water-energy-food nexus provides an insightful perspective on the present and future demands to maintain water, energy, and food sustainability, and China’s policy emphases on an ecologically and environmentally friendly society for China and the world.