The wave of power rationing and blackouts that began in mid-September in China has spread to more than 20 provinces, not only affecting industries, but also causing inconvenience to people’s livelihoods. Urban traffic lights are not on, residents are trapped in elevators, mobile phones have no signal, and so on. And to.
There is a view that this wave of “cutting the brakes on electricity curtailment” is related to Xi Jinping’s commitment to Biden to reduce carbon. At the United Nations General Assembly last week, Xi Jinping also pledged to go all out to achieve the goal of “carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060”. Therefore, he forced carbon reduction in China, but he did not expect to have self-harm effects.
Commentator Zhao Pei expressed a similar view to Voice of Hope on September 29: “China’s promise is to reduce coal use. But 70% of China’s power plants use coal. It limits the supply of this coal. Say if there is no electricity. It is the Chinese Communist Party’s intention to choke the neck.”
This is just as Xie Jinhe, chairman of Caixin Media, said on Facebook a few days ago, “The economic downturn was originally affected by external factors. It is rare to see a Chinese leader hacking himself with a big knife. Where is China going? Moment.”
What makes the situation worse for China’s power supply is that the CCP has not only been shutting down small coal mines in Shanxi and other provinces, it has also blocked Australian coal since last year, making coal supply for thermal power plants even more scarce. Zhao Pei also pointed out: “It didn’t buy U.S. coal before, and it was forced to start buying U.S. coal this year. However, it was reluctant to spend foreign exchange to buy enough coal, which caused China to be short of coal.”
The official two-pronged approach to reduce carbon emissions and regulate imports has caused China’s thermal coal prices to soar, exceeding electricity bills.
Zhao Pei said: “There is a shortage of coal, and power plants have to bid for coal. However, the CCP’s power grid cannot rise, so it is equivalent to a loss. Many places are reluctant to continue to use coal for power supply, which has caused tension. The northeast is even used by residents. The main reason for the power failure is that the Northeast local government has no money. So it may not be able to compete in the economically developed areas in the bidding process.”
The lack of electricity in China has aroused great repercussions internationally, and it has also cited the Chinese Communist Party’s official media People’s Daily to criticize local governments. China’s State Grid has held an emergency meeting on September 28, expressing that it will maintain power as the most important political task at present to ensure electricity for the people’s livelihood.
Han Shanbi, a Hong Kong biographer and former chairman of the Arts Development Council’s literary group, believes that in the future, the authorities may first protect residents’ electricity use: “If it happens suddenly, it will definitely affect. But in the long run, it will take care of the people’s livelihood first, that is, daily electricity consumption, and stop. Factory production. I don’t think it will completely ignore the people for the sake of production.”
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