China’s north and south provinces are experiencing power cuts, causing public concern. A few days ago, Shanghai and Beijing also issued notices of local power outages, with several urban areas in Beijing “rotating power outages”. Officials claim “normal maintenance”, but outsiders question the disguised power restrictions.
Beijing Fengtai District community forum “Fengtai Miscellany” recently issued a notice, from Monday to Friday (21 to 25) daily power outages for a few hours. The power outage will take place on Monday in the community of Wanliuyuan in Xincun Street and at other times in the community of Sanluju in Taipingqiao Street Office.
Fengtai District power outage notice. (Web screenshot)
According to the notice of power outage issued by “Today’s Headlines”, the scope of power outage in Beijing is not limited to Fengtai District. According to the notice, the city will have a power outage from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday (22nd), covering some streets in Xicheng District, Dongcheng District, Fengtai District and Changping District. On Monday, a power outage was also imposed at the same time, but the areas involved did not overlap with each other, in what appeared to be a “rotating blackout”.
However, the report was later deleted.
In addition, the Shanghai Electric Power Company also issued a notice saying that the power outage lasted for nearly 12 hours from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, covering Tangjiawan Road, Xinhe Road, Xinhe Town and other roads. Local officials said it was just a “line maintenance”.
Before that, Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi and Inner Mongolia have issued a notice of power restrictions, including measures such as time-limited power outages, shutting down small factories, and turning off street lights in the middle of the night. Zhejiang also required restrictions on the use of air conditioners. Later, Guangdong, Shenzhen and other cities also saw power outages without warning in some areas, officially called “line failure”.
Power restrictions in various places caused a lot of inconvenience to people’s lives. Restrictions on air conditioning in the south made heating difficult, and a large number of small factories in Yiwu and Wenzhou in Zhejiang were forced to shut down, which also caused public discontent.
These power restrictions or power outage notices do not specify the reason. Officially, the Chinese Communist Party said that the reason for the restrictions was “energy saving and emission reduction” or “industry is recovering too quickly”, but netizens did not believe the official explanation and speculated about the truth behind it.
Many netizens attribute the restrictions to political retaliation by the Chinese Communist Party for halting imports of Australian coal. Multiple reports indicate that the suspension of Australian coal may have caused a shortage of coal supply for power generation in China, and that officials are trying to step up coal imports. The latest news from Bloomberg suggests that China will again import large quantities of coal from Australia.
In addition, Radio Free Asia cited analysis that the authorities may be rehearsing for a possible wartime situation. And Chinese environmental expert Wang Weiluo believes this may be the CCP’s way of preparing public opinion for the next electricity tariff hike.
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