According to China's customs statistics, in 2020 China imported 100.33 million tons of soybean, exceeding the historical level of 95.53 million tons in 2017. It took China only 25 years to increase hundred-fold its imports and take over 60% of global soybean trade. The total arable land area fell to the lowest registered level at 120 million hectares, while its protein feed demand continued exploding, forcing China to allow its long-standing stranglehold on domestic soybean oil and soybean meal supply to be covered by a number of foreign grain giants in order to save its farmlands for cereal production.