Beijing residents are stocking up on cabbage after authorities issued a notice telling people to keep daily necessities in stock in case of emergencies.
Article by Dorothy Li from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
Supermarkets have capped sales at three cabbages per person, but even then, shoppers arriving after 9 a.m. local time left empty-handed.
“Every year at this time the [cabbage] sales volume is high. But after the report came out, everyone rushed to buy even more,” said Jia Jinzhi, a grower who sells cabbage at Beijing’s Xinfadi wholesale market.
The panic buying followed a notice from the commerce ministry on Nov. 1 encouraging people to stock up on daily necessities in case of emergencies. The lack of explanation about the directive triggered long queues outside supermarkets in downtown Beijing in the early mornings last week. On China’s social media, some users even linked the advice with a potential war with Taiwan.
State-run Economic Daily responded to concerns in a later report, saying the notice was meant to make sure people are prepared for a potential lockdown due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. But it didn’t stop shoppers from stocking up on cabbage.
Customers at a local supermarket said they were paying about three times what they paid last year, or 1 yuan ($0.16) per half kilo.
But if they didn’t buy now, prices would double further into winter, said another shopper surnamed Sun.
“You can keep it for two or three months. You put it outside, find a cotton blanket to cover it,” he said.
As the vegetable could be kept fresh for months in freezing temperatures, people living in northern China are used to buying up to dozens of green cabbages to eat during the winter.
Chinese families have started increasing their stockpiling of staples, including cabbages, after a recent surge in the price of vegetables and seasoning.
A resident in Beijing Tongzhou told The Epoch Times the price of cabbages, spinach, cucumbers, and radish had more than doubled in the first week of November.
Tang Ke, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said at a press conference on Nov. 4 that the reasons for the price rise include poor weather reducing production, and regional lockdowns putting strains on deliveries.
Meanwhile, the recent nationwide cold snap has caused traffic disruptions, adding more pressure on food supplies. Beijing and other northeastern regions in China experienced snow on Nov. 7, almost a month earlier than usual, leading to the closure of roads and cancellations of flights and trains.
State-backed media The Paper reported on Nov. 7 that snow piled up in residential compounds under lockdown cannot be cleared away.
Many Beijing residents have been sealed in their homes as the authorities have further tightened restrictions against growing COVID-19 outbreaks now spread to over half of the country’s provinces.
Officials are also on high alert as Beijing is currently holding a major closed-down summit of the top members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Image by beautifulcataya via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
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