A large number of private coal stocks were forcibly seized by Linfen officials in December 2020.
Linfen City, Shanxi Province, has been conducting a coal ban campaign since the beginning of this month to comply with the environmental policy requirements of the higher authorities, forcibly entering homes and violently collecting stoves, coal and firewood.
In the name of air pollution control, several areas in Linfen City have been implementing a large-scale “three-zero” campaign against loose coal, coal-burning stoves and firewood since the beginning of this month. In Xiangfen County, officials have been violently enforcing the law.
Chen Hongtao, a media figure who follows the incident, described the campaign as similar to the “three light policy” used by The Japanese during their invasion of China, namely “burn all, kill all and rob all”. Chen Hongtao pointed out that because of the annual pressure of the so-called environmental protection assessment. Local officials are willing to use the most extreme methods in order to reduce the pollution index to keep their official positions. And the people’s suffering, they do not care.
Chen Hongtao said: this kind of stove with coal and so on, all for you to tear down. If you have coal stored in your home, you will be confiscated and pulled away. Many places are engaged in a raid on environmental protection, because it each place, it has a ranking. Ranking the province’s last, that place of a leader ah, may be because of this matter to be accountable. These leaders, he for his own hat, then a swarm of such engagement. In this sweeping deadlines, those who work at the grassroots level, you will not be allowed to use the chant. The actual fact is that the actual people are not going to be able to get a lot of money from the actual people.
The Linfen municipal government declined to comment. The Xiangfen County Bureau of Ecology and Environment admitted to the station that coal is banned in the area, but did not respond to questions about the violent ban, saying that specific implementation measures are within the scope of the county government and township governments.
Xiangfen County Environment Bureau: coal to gas or coal to electricity, subsidies have standards, right? Each township has its own standard, the specific details of this related does not belong to our Environment Bureau in charge, is the head of each township government.
The pictures on the internet show that a large number of officials were sent to destroy and dismantle the villagers’ stoves, and large machines were sent to carry away the villagers’ coal stocks. The local temperature has now dropped to minus 15 degrees, leaving a large number of villagers without heating facilities and in a precarious situation.
In December 2020, officials from the Linfen Ecological and Environmental Protection Bureau entered villagers’ homes to collect coal. (Official release from Linfen Ecological and Environmental Protection Bureau)
Some locals pointed out to this station that the so-called coal-to-electricity and coal-to-gas conversions that have been implemented for three years have resulted in high gas prices, and that an average family that uses gas or electricity for heating costs thousands of dollars a month, far more than the average citizen can afford. Especially during the epidemic period, most people lost their jobs, which added to the hardships of the villagers.
A local director-level public official also sympathized with the people’s situation. Citing himself as an example, he said he could heat his house with gas because he had a three-month heating allowance in addition to his salary, while the general public could not have this concession.
Director Jia said: I can only tell you about me, the rest is not quite sure how they burn. My family burns 5 groups of gas, 30 to 30 yuan a day. Because I am a public official, I have a salary, there are baking fees and so on. It is according to your title, we are 4,000 yuan, right, a year, I can afford it. The people, the burden is a little heavier.
According to official statistics, Xianfen County alone has recently deployed 30,000 people to dismantle 5,179 coal-fired facilities, clearing 1,560 tons of loose coal, more than 73,000 pieces of honeycomb coal, and more than 700 tons of firewood. In addition, Yao Du District, Hong Dong County, and Pu County have also implemented large-scale no media campaigns and are required to complete the “three clean-ups” target.
In order to alleviate China’s severe air pollution, especially around Beijing, officials have implemented a severe campaign to ban coal in northern and central China since three years ago, and tried to replace coal-fired heating with coal-to-gas and coal-to-electricity conversions. But because of the systematic corruption of energy official enterprises and energy shortage, this plan has failed from the beginning, not only the people cannot afford the high cost of gas and electricity for heating, but also there is a widespread shortage of both gas and electricity. The officials, on the other hand, ignored the plight of the people and continued to apply brutal pressure.
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