Animation: Monologue of a soybean

Hi, everybody. I am a soybean. I may not look like much, but I'm very important. Of course, you all know I'm the key to tofu and soy sauce. But my family and I can also be made into soybean oil, which goes into all of your favorite foods, like cakes, cookies, and bread.

Humans aren't the only ones that eat us as we're an essential food source for farm animals such as chickens, pigs, cattle, and fish.

But I'm not only here to give you a lesson on what we are. I've been in the news lately because I'm caught in the middle of a trade war involving the two powerful countries of China and the United States.

Soybean farmers will probably no longer support Donald Trump.‍ [Photo: CGTN]

US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on billions of US dollars' worth of Chinese imports. In return, China has done the same, levying taxes on many products from the US, and one of them is – you guessed it – soybeans.

You see, China is the world's largest consumer of soybeans. In fact, it imports 85 percent of the crop. About a third of that is from the US, making it the second largest provider of soybeans for the world's most populous country.

America, on the other hand, exports much of the crop to the rest of the world. Most of the US' soybean exports -- 62 percent -- go to China. More expensive soy could mean that China will look to other sources for the bulk of its imports. As two of the top soybean suppliers to China, Brazil and Argentina could pick up the slack. If that happens, soybean farmers in the US could take an even greater hit. The crop's prices in the US already dropped by 18 percent from May to early July amid fears of a trade war, the lowest so far this year.

Why is Trump doing this now? Maybe it's because many US lawmakers are up for re-election in November, and Trump wants to win over more voters by starting a trade war.

Many US lawmakers are up for re-election in November. [Photo: CGTN]

But the funny thing is that those voters whom Trump thinks will rally behind his trade actions will be hurt by this conflict. That's because China's retaliatory response in raising tariffs on soybeans will affect the top 10 soybean-producing states in the US. Nine of them supported Trump in the 2016 presidential elections. What's more, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio are traditional swing states.

So will voters there turn out to support Trump and the Republicans once they get hit in the pocketbooks?

Script writer: Wang Xiaonan

Animation consultant: Luo Qing

Animation director: Hu Dacheng

Animation producers: Kong Qinjing, Zhang Jiajia

Voice-over: Henry Zheng