The following article from the UN news agency caught me by surprise. On the one hand it makes sense that one of the world’s largest countries be a large food aid donor. On the other hand the extreme rural poverty in China makes you wonder how, exactly, that is accomplished. Interestingly, China becam the 3rd largest food donor the same year it stopped receiving food aid itself.


CHINA EMERGES AS WORLD’S THIRD LARGEST FOOD AID DONOR, UN AGENCY SAYS
New York, Jul 20 2006 10:00AM
In the same year it stopped receiving food aid from the United Nations World Food Programme, China emerged as the world’s third largest food aid donor in 2005, according to the latest annual Food Aid Monitor from INTERFAIS, the International Food Aid Information System, the agency said today.
Global food aid grew by 10 per cent to 8.2 million metric tons in 2005, a slight upturn in an overall declining trend, according to the INTERFAIS database, which is hosted by WFP to track all donations of food aid, not just those handled by the agency.