China’s Massive Resource Hoarding Belies Its Real Plans

China's imports of core resources have skyrocketed as it stockpiles corn, wheat, soy, oil, copper, and even steel – and strikes new deals to bring additional chip building capacity to Beijing. Individually, each of these increases might be considered normal. But taken in sum, these steep import bumps represent an unprecedented Chinese effort to stockpile key resources, setting China up for resilience in the face of international conflict. These are not the actions of a nation that intends to pursue a path of cooperative international governance. They are the actions of a nation that is preparing to be cut off from the world.