Today (Sep 7) marks the birthday of Yuan Longping, widely known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice." Over the course of his 50-year career, Yuan made remarkable contributions to solving global food security challenges. Today, more than 20 African countries have brought in and cultivated hybrid rice from China to feed their people.
In 2006, at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the Chinese government pledged to initiate 10 new agricultural projects in Africa within three years. By 2008, Li Yanping and a team of experts from Hunan Province brought hybrid rice seeds to Madagascar, the largest island nation in Africa. Notably, Li Yanping was the only female member of the Chinese agricultural delegation.
"Madagascar is truly my second home," Li stated. Over the past 16 years, she has spent at least 11 months each year in Africa, sharing China’s hybrid rice expertise across the continent.
Madagascar’s geographic conditions present significant challenges for rice cultivation. The east coast is frequently hit by typhoons, which flatten crops, while the west coast, with its savanna climate, suffers from drought. This has necessitated the development of rice varieties capable of withstanding both floods and droughts.
Rice is Madagascar’s staple crop. However, due to factors such as poor seed quality, outdated cultivation techniques, and inadequate infrastructure, the country has long struggled to meet its own food needs.
Li Yanping recalled, “The local children were emaciated, like skeletons. We would buy cookies and sugar to share with them, and they would run over, gratefully saying thank you. In those moments, I thought, if only we could use hybrid rice to help solve their food shortages and poverty.”
Under the guidance of Yuan Longping, Li Yanping and her colleagues spent the next decade traveling across Madagascar’s rice-growing regions. Their efforts resulted in the successful development of three high-yield hybrid rice varieties suited to local conditions, thus enabling the localization of hybrid rice in Madagascar.
While traditional rice varieties in Madagascar produce an average yield of 2.5 tons per hectare, hybrid rice yields can reach up to 7.5 tons per hectare.
In August 2017, a government delegation from Madagascar traveled to Changsha, Hunan Province, to present Yuan Longping with a special gift: a newly issued Madagascar’s 20,000 Ariari banknote featuring a bundle of rice crop, symbolizing the profound impact of Chinese hybrid rice on the nation’s food security.
“May everyone under the sun be free from hunger," Yuan Longping often said. This was his greatest vision before he passed away.
After his death, a government representative of Madagascar brought from home a bowl of hybrid rice produced in Madagascar, and placed it in front of Yuan’s tomb. “Farmers in Madagascar who grow hybrid rice entrusted me with this bowl of rice to honour Professor Yuan. It carries the love and sincere gratitude of the people of Madagascar,” Rakutoson Filibel, former Secretry General of the Ministry of Agriculture of Madgascar told reporters. “Without Professor Yuan Longping, Madagascar would never have learned about hybrid rice. Without hybrid rice, Madagascar could not have developed the way China has,” he said.
As part of the first three-year plan of the China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035, China has dispatched over 500 agricultural experts to Africa and trained nearly 9,000 agricultural specialists. By the end of last year, China had established 24 agricultural technology demonstration centres across Africa, introducing more than 300 advanced farming techniques, including dense maize planting, vegetable cultivation, and rapid cassava propagation. These initiatives have benefited over one million African smallholders, contributing significantly to poverty reduction and development across the continent.
Mao Paishou
Mao Paishou
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer departs for China on January 28 in what amounts to a diplomatic rejection of Washington's either-or foreign policy. Speaking to Bloomberg on January 26, Starmer made his position clear: Britain will stop “sticking your head in the sand and ignoring China” and pursue economic ties with the world's second-largest economy.
Starmer gave Bloomberg his clearest signal yet that Britain won't subordinate economic interests to US demands.
This marks the first visit by a British Prime Minister to China in nearly eight years—a gap Starmer himself calls a "dereliction of duty."
The Bloomberg interview, conducted at 10 Downing Street, lays bare the economic rationale driving this reset. Starmer's four-day trip fulfills a Labour campaign promise to repair UK-China relations, which deteriorated over Hong Kong issues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and espionage allegations. Recent months have seen deliberate moves to ease tensions—most notably, last week's approval for China to build a new embassy in London: widely seen as strategic groundwork for this visit.
Rejecting the Binary Trap
When pressed on whether strengthening China ties would come "at the expense" of Britain's closest allies, Starmer pushed back hard. He cited the US-UK trade talks as precedent: "I remember when I was doing the US trade deal, and everybody put to me that I'd have to make a choice between the US and Europe, and I said, 'I'm not making that choice.'" The message to Washington is unmistakable—Britain will chart its own course, and Trump's tariff threats won't dictate British foreign policy.
Starmer explicitly rejected the approach taken by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who recently called for smaller nations to band together against what he termed a "new era of great power rivalry." His calculation is simple: developing UK-China relations won't anger Trump or damage transatlantic ties.
Starmer insists that strengthening UK-China ties won't damage relations with Washington.
Timing Is Everything
The context matters. Carney's Davos Forum remarks urging smaller countries to unite in the face of great power competition put a spotlight on Starmer's China visit.
Starmer maintained that UK-US relations remain "very close" and will continue across business, security, and defense sectors. More importantly, he insisted that "Britain can have the best of both worlds" between China and the US—a tightrope walk that few Western leaders have managed successfully in recent years.
Follow the Money
Keir Starmer is finally saying the quiet part out loud to Bloomberg: the UK needs China. While he pays lip service to maintaining "very close" ties with Washington on security and defense, the real headline is his admission that Britain can—and must—pursue the "best of both worlds." The reality is that London is realizing it can no longer afford to blindly follow US foreign policy cliffs.
Make no mistake: the era of delusional decoupling is over. Starmer was blunt, stating that if you "bury your head in the sand and ignore China"—the world's second-largest economy teeming with opportunity—it would not be "sensible". He made it clear that this trip is unapologetically about economic reality, while national security is not compromised. "Quite the opposite," indeed—engagement is the only path to security.
The scale of this mission speaks for itself. Starmer’s hitting Beijing and Shanghai with a delegation of approximately 60 leaders from business, universities, and cultural institutions.
Washington's Chaos Forces London's Hand
The backdrop to this pivot is undeniable. The US-Europe transatlantic partnership is currently in shambles over the Greenland dispute, with Trump threatening tariffs against eight European nations. Add to that his inflammatory remarks about NATO “staying a little back, a little off the frontlines" and it’s no wonder London is looking for stability elsewhere.
Yet, Starmer insists on maintaining a "mature" facade with Trump. He claims the UK approaches these headaches with "British pragmatism, common sense, and adherence to our own principles." But the real issue is evident in his admission that the UK must forge tighter military bonds with Europe. He’s already signaling a capitulation to demands for higher defense spending, noting, "I do think that Europe needs to be stronger in its own defense and security, I think we need to step up to that challenge."
Starmer mentioned a weekend call with Trump regarding Ukraine, warning that both Kyiv and Europe are desperate for American backing. He framed it as, "Ukraine is a very good example of why we need to maintain a very close UK-US relationship".
The roster confirms the priority here is hard cash, not ideology. Reuters reported on the 23rd that heavyweights like Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Peter Kyle are towing a massive group of executives to the Chinese Mainland. The Financial Times adds that this commercial armada spans critical sectors including life sciences, aerospace, and financial services.
Sources close to the PM are cutting through the noise, labeling the refusal of previous Prime Ministers to visit China a sheer "dereliction of duty." The logic is inescapable: they hope to finally strengthen cooperation with the economic superpower. As one source put it, turning a blind eye and pretending China doesn't matter is reckless and will only make Britain poorer and less secure.
Starmer himself emphasized that it is time to reject the "overly simplistic binary choices" of the past—refusing to be boxed into either the so-called "Golden Era" or the disastrous "Ice Age."
When pressed on Starmer’s visit at a January 26 press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun highlighted the turbulent international landscape. He noted that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the UK serve global interests by strengthening cooperation. Beijing, as always, remains open to pragmatic engagement and will release further details in due course.
