Part 7/11:
Currently, authorities are actively managing the crisis by reducing herd sizes through capacity control meetings, tightening credit, and withdrawing subsidies. The goal is to reduce the national pig herd from overcapacity to a more sustainable level—around 40 million head. Smaller and overleveraged producers are being pushed out, with their assets snapped up by larger players at rock-bottom prices—a clear move toward consolidating industry power.
This deliberate manipulation demonstrates a core feature of China’s economic strategy: using crises to consolidate control and reshape industries to favor large state-affiliated corporations—what some might call "economic dominism with Chinese characteristics."