Major grain-producing regions across China are intensifying efforts to increase per-unit crop yields in an effort to meet the country's grain output target for 2025.
According to the annual government work report, China has raised its 2025 grain production target to a record high of over 700 million metric tons.
At present, spring sowing has largely concluded across the vast and fertile lands of northeast China. Most fields have adequate soil moisture, and seedlings are emerging in succession, nurturing hopes for a bountiful harvest in the new season.
Meanwhile, in the major winter wheat-producing regions, 40 percent of the wheat harvest has been completed, progressing at a faster pace than during the same period last year. Conditions are in place for a promising summer grain harvest.
"Look at this ear of wheat—the grains are full, and the ear is heavy," said Liu Gebin, a grain grower in Yuanyang County, Xinxiang City, central China's Henan Province.
This year, the government will continue to strengthen support for grain production by raising the minimum purchase prices for wheat and early indica rice, maintaining stable subsidies for corn, soybean, and rice producers, and ensuring full coverage of cost and income insurance for rice, wheat, and corn.
These measures aim to further motivate farmers to grow grain. The intended grain planting area for the year is estimated at approximately 120 million hectares.
China is also advancing the construction of high-standard farmland, with plans to add another 5.3 million hectares in 2025.
In addition, the country is focusing on five major crops—rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rapeseed—by developing, testing, and promoting a range of key technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency across six critical areas. These efforts are intended to unlock the full yield potential of grain and oil crops throughout the entire production process.
"We regard large-scale yield improvement as a key task and major measure for ensuring grain production this year. For the first time, we have launched a large-scale initiative to boost rice yields, and the number of counties designated for full-scale implementation has been expanded to 702," said Lyu Xiutao, deputy director of the crop production department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
China's major grain-producing regions intensify efforts to boost per-unit yields toward 2025 output target
International guests who have dedicated their lives to historical truth joined China's 12th national memorial event honoring the hundreds of thousands of victims killed by Japanese troops in the Nanjing Massacre during World War II.
The memorial was held on Saturday at the public square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. China's national flag was flown at half-mast in the presence the crowd that included survivors of the massacre, local students, and international guests.
In one of the most barbaric episodes during WWII, the Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, they proceeded to kill approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.
Joining the crowd was Christoph Reinhardt, the great-grandson of John Rabe (1882-1950) who was then a representative of German conglomerate Siemens in the war-ravaged Nanjing. During the Nanjing Massacre, Rabe set up an international safety zone with other foreigners, and they together saved the lives of around 250,000 Chinese people between 1937 and 1938 from the Japanese invaders.
Throughout the massacre, Rabe continued to keep a diary. To this day, all his pages remain one of the most comprehensive historical records of the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors.
Sayoko Yamauchi, who was also in the crowd of mourners, arrived in Nanjing on Friday from Japan's Osaka to attend Saturday's ceremony, just as she has done almost every year since China designated Dec 13 as the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in 2014.
Yamauchi's grandfather was one of the Japanese soldiers who invaded Nanjing in January 1938. However, since first setting foot in Nanjing in 1987, she has dedicated herself to uncovering and spreading the truth about Japan's history of aggression and enlightening the Japanese public about their country's wartime atrocities.
In 2014, ahead of China's first National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, Yamauchi, along with 10 other individuals, received an award for her special contribution to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
By attending the grand memorial event, Reinhardt and Yamauchi both said they hope to convey a message of remembering history and cherishing peace.
"This is my fifth visit to China, and Nanjing, and the third times I visited the ceremony. I have a wish that these survivors survive again and again and again. But my other wish is that the families of the survivors, that they transport the information, the right intention like their ancestors, because anyone must hold a hand (during) this remembering," Reinhardt told China Central Television (CCTV) in an interview before the event began on Saturday.
"Our delegation is on its 20th visit to China, coming to Nanjing to express our heartfelt condolences to those who perished 88 years ago, to remember this history, and to reflect on what we can do for a new future. That's why we are here," Yamauchi told CCTV on board the bus that took her to a local hotel in Nanjing on Friday evening.
Int'l guests call for remembering history at China's national event honoring Nanjing Massacre victims
