Feeding 1 in 6. Small mighty fish farms (episode 4)

Episode summary

In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping's government decided not to regulate its fishing sector. What grew out of that space was extraordinary. Today China produces 76 million tonnes of seafood a year, and a mounting environmental cost. This episode follows the small farms and the global infrastructure that connects them, and asks what happens when a government tries to course correct a system it deliberately set loose.

[ Transcript available ]

About the guests

Han Han

Han Han is the founder and director of China Blue Sustainability Institute, the first NGO in China dedicated to sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Before founding China Blue in 2016, she spent fifteen years working directly with China's seafood industry in fishing villages across the country, building the practical knowledge and relationships that now underpin the organization's work. China Blue operates as a translator and bridge-builder between small-scale fishers, government, scientists, and industry — working to close the gap between policy ambition and on-the-ground reality.

Xuefei Shi

Xuefei Shi is a fisheries and aquaculture researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway, where his work focuses on trans-Indian Ocean seafood trade, Sinophone maritime worlds, and China's social and ecological footprint in East Africa. He has over ten years of experience in China and global governance, and has provided policy consultancy to projects funded by the World Bank, UNESCO, and WWF.

James Keeley

James Keeley is a researcher and consultant specialising in food and agricultural development in Africa, China as an international development actor, and UK-China engagement on shared global challenges. He has led major trilateral cooperation programmes between China and African governments, including AgriTT — an FCDO-funded initiative with partners in Malawi and Uganda — and previously served as China lead at the International Institute for Environment and Development. He writes regularly for Oxford Analytica on China policy and is co-author of Understanding Environmental Policy Processes: Cases from Africa (Earthscan).