China has use genetic engineering to develop a pest resistant strain of rice. The new strains produce 28 percent higher yields, and using less manpower as well. This will provide a dramatic boost for the Chinese economy, where 80 percent of the population is still employed. For thousands of years, Chinese have recognized that basis of Chinese power was farming. China developed high yield (rice) farming before anyone else and 800 years ago Chinese were about 25 percent of the planet's population (today it is about 20 percent.) New hybrid rice strains, based on Western technology, have enabled China to feed its population over the last few decades.