Over the past week, provinces in China such as Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan have abruptly suffered from power outage one after another. In county-level city Yiwu, Zhejiang, a prominent small commodity wholesale center, even street lights and neon signs were switched off for economizing on electricity. In Hunan, company staff had to walk up the stairs of 30 stories during power blackout in a commercial skyscraper. It was even more jaw-dropping in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan, where a lot of people were trapped in lifts and treatments in hospitals were obstructed when water supply and telecommunications networks were shut down along with power failure. As to the unannounced energy rationing, despite no unanimous conclusion drawn, it is almost known for certain that it is not a “power outage concerned in politics”, but one of the ill effects of “being hoisted with Australian coal”.

The National Development and Reform Commission pointed out the power outage is the consequence of “a sharp rise in demand for electricity caused by a mix of rapid growth in industrial production and a cold snap”. To make the statement valid, official media reported that frigid weather persisted, followed by escalation in the burden on electrical grids, which reached record high on December 14 and 15, while Hunan Development and Reform Commission said the burden on the electrical grid rocketed beyond history record, increasing by 14.1% year on year.

However, the statement is still debatable. The winter this year is not particularly frosty and the cold front did not have a few provinces in the cross hairs before attack. If Zhejiang had been attacked by a cold front and then had suffered from power blackout, why would Jiangsu, an adjacent province, have remained intact? The industrial production in both Hunan and Jiangxi, which are not industrial or manufacturing provinces yet where energy rationing was in effect, could not have surged all at once. Various statistics also do not come out in favour of such a statement. More embarrassingly, most of the places suffering power outage are power supply areas of the Three Gorges Dam Hydro Electric Power Plant. It was boasted in those years that the electricity generated by Three Gorges Dam could meet the demand of central and southern China, almost half of the country. Palpably, the authorities are too embarrassed to mention the real reason behind.

Xi Jinping declared at the Global Climate Summit on December 12 that China will have its carbon emissions reach the peak by 2030 and decrease by 65% as compared to 2005, and the country will strive for achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, with an increase of 6 billion cubic meters in forest growing stock. This is basically a reiteration of his public promise at the General Assembly of the United Nations(UNGA) in September this year.

Nonetheless, the promise has been queried. After Xi Jinping’s speech delivered at the UNGA, the US Department of State criticized China for not performing its best in reducing carbon emissions, indicating that China had been emitting most greenhouse gas all around the world since 2006, which accounted for one third of the total amount of global emissions. A report by the European Commission also pointed out that the amount of emissions by China, the country emitting most carbon dioxide, accounted for 30% of the total by the globe. In the first half of 2020, coal-fired power plants newly built in China generated 128 billion kilowatts, which amounted to 85.3% of the total amount by the globe. And the country is planning to build more. Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an NGO, said: “A large quantity of coal-fired power plants built in provinces in China is in contradiction with the promise made by the country that its carbon emissions will reach the peak by 2030.” He mentioned China is addicted to coal and it is hard for it to quit.

Though the queries are not unreasonable, the characteristics of China systems are left out of consideration. Notwithstanding the Chinese Communist Party having publicly promised the international community on issues such as Hong Kong, examples of its reneging on them are innumerable. Anyhow, while Xi is still in power and vigorously preparing for his perennial ruling, the promises he gave to the entire world have to be taken seriously even as political missions by various departments and governments of different echelons for it concerns Xi’s face and authority and impacts on the groundwork for his perennial ruling. So, those provinces and cities that have not reached the set target for energy conservation and carbon emissions have to rush at the quota by the end of the year. As Zhejiang and Shaanxi used to be Xi’s den, they have to be an exemplar by taking the initiative to put in practice Xi’s emissions reduction program. For local vassals, in spite of “energy conservation and emissions reduction” by power rationing causing harm to industrial production and people’s livelihood, it shows their loyalty. This is akin to the farce of coal changed to natural gas in Hebei three years ago. To work in coordination with the political mission to deal with the air pollution problem in the capital, the then newly-appointed secretary gave an order that banned the peripheral areas of the capital from burning coal, and made the inhabitants switch to using natural gas, which resulted in a heat supply crisis in Hebei in the wintertime.

As for the power outage in southern and eastern China this time, the cause of it is closely related to worsening Sino-Australia relations. Since early this year, Beijing has been curbing products from Australia via tariffs and import stoppage. Barley, red wine, beef, lobsters and now coal have all been put on the list of “ban Australia”. Power plants in China, not least those situated along the coastal areas, have since long time ago been relying on coal from Australia. As compared to the coal from local mines, Russia and Indonesia, the Australian, which accounts for 57% of the total import of power-generating coal to China, is in the ascendant in terms of quality and price. That is why coastal power plants use coal from Australia more than that from other countries. But under “the order to ban Australia”, while the total quantity of coal import from Australia dropped drastically by 97% last month, domestic coal mines and transport capacity could not catch up, resulting in a soar in coal price. The coal in stock in a lot of provinces has nosedived almost to the bottom line, and power plants nearly stop electricity supply.

Isn’t that an act of harming others without benefiting oneself, and hoist with Australian coal? Yet, with the major premise that the leader’s face is everything, coupled with the desire to punish Australia with the order to ban Australia for its following the US to go against China, a lot of people in various provinces forced to pull the frosty winter through during power stoppage is caused in the end. The order to ban Australia will not be forgone easily with nationalism at work. Consequently, more people will suffer!

(Poon Siu-to, veteran journalist)

Click here for Chinese version

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play