Factories in southwestern China have closed, and cities have implemented rolling blackouts as drought worsens and lacks reservoirs for hydroelectric power generation. Jinping seeks to expand his grip on power.
Companies in Sichuan province, including solar panel, cement and urea makers, have closed or scaled back production after being ordered to distribute electricity for up to five days, reports Wednesday. This came after water levels in reservoirs dropped and power demand for air conditioners surged in the heat wave.
"Leave power for the people," an order from the state government was issued on Tuesday.
In Sichuan province, home to 94 million people, water levels in hydroelectric reservoirs have fallen by up to half this month, according to the Sichuan Ministry of Economic Information and Technology.
According to Shanghai news agency The Paper, power companies in Dazhou, a city of Sichuan province with a population of 3.4 million, imposed a two-and-a-half-hour blackout this week, and on Wednesday he reduced it to three hours. extended. An office building in the provincial capital Chengdu was told to turn off the air conditioning, according to the Securities Times.
The shutdown adds challenges for the ruling Communist Party, with Xi, the country's most powerful leader in decades, At the November meeting, I am preparing to break with tradition and give myself a third five-year term as leader.
July factory output and retail sales growth weaken, China's economic recovery slows after Shanghai and other industrial centers shut down to fight virus outbreak in late March
Economic growth in the first half of 2022 was only 2.5% y/y, less than half the official annual target of 5.5%.
Regions in central and northern China have ordered emergency measures to ensure drinking water supplies after summer rains fell below half of normal levels. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said fire trucks brought water to his two dry villages near Chongqing in the southwest.
Hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of crops in central and northern China have wilted due to lack of water and high temperatures, according to the government. Some areas reported a failed summer growing season.
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
A subsidiary of Guoguang Co., Ltd., which makes pesticides and fertilizers, will be closed from Monday to at least Saturday, the company said through the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Sichuan PV equipment makers, including Tongwei Solar Co. Ltd. and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd., he said, have been notified to distribute electricity.
Tongwei said, "The blackouts and production shutdowns have not had a major impact," Business News his outlet East Money reported.
China last year ordered the closure of factories in southeastern Guangdong province, one of the world's most important manufacturing centers, after sporadic rains left hydroelectric reservoirs low. faced similar tensions when
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the government has allocated 280 million yuan ($41 million) for drought relief in Hebei and Shanxi provinces, the northern Inner Mongolia region and the northeastern Liaoning province.
"Some small and medium-sized rivers have dried up and stopped flowing," the report said.
Meanwhile, officials warned that flooding could occur in parts of the country as heavy rains are expected across the northwest and across Inner Mongolia to the northeast.
