China has been using its version of crop price supports to achieve income support and experienced a similar progression of results as occurred in the U.S. and EU many years earlier. Now it appears poised to take another step down the same farm policy road once traveled by both.On occasions in the past, we have noted that Chinese government economic planners fell into the same trap that had previously captured some other countries decades earlier, particularly the U.S. and EU, when it came to farm polices and income support for producers. That trap was the decision to support farm income by directly supporting prices for important crops at generous specified levels that were nearly always higher than prices available in the open market. Thes...