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The largest provincial economy in China's northeast rust belt on Monday warned of worsening power shortages despite government efforts to boost coal supply and manage electricity use in a post-pandemic energy crisis hitting multiple countries. The energy crisis gripping the world's second largest-economy and top exporter is expected to last through to the end of the year, with analysts and traders forecasting a 12% drop in industrial power consumption in the fourth quarter because coal supply is expected to fall short this winter. Liaoning province issued its second-highest alert level for power shortages for the fifth time in two weeks...

Talks between Indian and Chinese army commanders to disengage troops from key friction areas along their border have ended in a stalemate and failed to ease a 17-month stand-off that has sometimes led to deadly clashes, the two sides said on Monday (Oct 11). The continuing stand-off means the two nations will keep troops in the forward areas of Ladakh for a second consecutive winter in dangerously freezing temperatures. India's defence ministry, in a statement, said it gave “constructive suggestions” but the Chinese side was “not agreeable” and “could not provide any forward-looking proposals”.

This August, Chinese state-run paper Economic Information Daily ran a scathing 6,000-word article that condemned the country’s online gaming industry as promoting “spiritual opium,” raking in billions while creating a “new drug” addiction among the people, especially youth. The article was republished in dozens of outlets and followed by similar commentaries in state media and official social media posts. Within days, Chinese gaming giants like Tencent and NetEase saw their stocks plummet by 300 billion yuan; on Aug. 30, Beijing imposed strict regulations on online gaming, limiting minors to three hours of playtime a week. The onslaught by the press...

Torrential rain that lasted for almost five days straight has forced China’s coal hub to close 60 coal mines, piling further pressure on the country already grappling with a power crunch. The downpower that struck 11 cities in northern China’s Shanxi Province has triggered flooding and landslides, destroying railway lines and bridges, and causing fatalities. The provincial weather agency said on Oct. 10 that showers will continue the next 10 days. Heavy rain beginning on Oct. 2 has suspended 60 coal mines, 372 other mines, 14 hazardous-chemical enterprises, and over 1,000 constructing projects, the Shanxi government said in a notice...

Countries around the world are feeling the brunt of the global energy crisis. Some Chinese provinces are rationing electricity, Europeans are paying exorbitant prices for liquefied gas and Lebanon has run out of centrally-generate electricity. Furthermore, India is close to running out of coal and in the United States, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.25 on Friday, up from April's $1.27. As the global economy works to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the sudden energy crisis is putting a strain on supply chains and stirring geopolitical tensions. What's more, as global leaders are preparing to meet...

China’s Unstable Political Economy Evergrande’s collapse is a sign of deeper weakness, just when Xi is impatient to challenge the U.S. By John Lee Oct. 6, 2021 5:27 pm ET The world has been watching as the Chinese real-estate giant Evergrande flails, and some have been asking whether Beijing will soon have a moment akin to 2008’s collapse of Lehman Brothers in America. Xi Jinping may manage to prevent the burst of the real estate bubble, but China’s economy isn’t heading for more-sustainable growth. Evergrande’s woes are a reminder that China’s political economy under Mr. Xi has become even more...

China's effort to continue with their military build-up in the eastern Ladakh region and incoporation of new infrastructure development in a bid to sustain the large-scale deployment indicates possibility of an exacerbated geopolitical conflict between the two countries. Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane said on Saturday that India has been monitoring on all the activities by the Chine PLA meticulously. He said if the Chinese military maintains the deployment through the second winter, it may lead to an LoC-like situation (Line of Control) though not an active LoC as is there on the western front with Pakistan The...

News AnalysisBeijing’s containment strategy is failing. Instead of abating, China’s financial strains are intensifying.Last month, when concerns first arose with the insolvency of the real estate giant Evergrande, Beijing held back from getting too involved. The nation’s leadership no doubt hoped that the financial waves would calm without much effort on their part.Now with the announcements of more failures and defaults, it is apparent that financial problems are deepening and becoming more widespread. Indeed, the news is beginning to resemble the beginnings of America’s 2008-09 financial crisis. Beijing cannot avoid acting for long.The latest news is disturbing. The first tentative...

Beijing (AFP) - Chinese authorities have ordered dozens of coal mines to expand production amid a nationwide energy crunch, state media reported Friday. Dozens of mines in China's Inner Mongolia, a major coal producing region, were instructed to increase their capacity by more than 98 million tonnes in an official notice not released to the public, the state-run Securities Times reported. Nearly 60 percent of China's energy-hungry economy is fuelled by coal, and the country has struggled to wean itself from the fuel despite its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2060. China has been hit by widespread power cuts...

China is banning the export of phosphate, a major component of commercial fertilizer, through 2022. “Fertilizer prices have increased dramatically in recent years, and the news coming from China will more than likely help this trend continue,” said Theresa Sisung, field crops specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau. “Farmers should talk to their retailers sooner rather than later to discuss their options for purchasing fertilizer for their 2022 crop needs.” According to John Ezinga, vice president of agronomy at Michigan Agricultural Commodities Inc., the move will adversely affect prices. “Growers are going to feel it,” Ezinga said. “Look at your...

President Joe Biden’s administration is considering providing tariff exemptions for more than 500 products made in China — a potential boon to corporations who continue offshoring to the communist country. This week, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai said the administration would continue to preserve tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese products first imposed by former President Donald Trump.

The Maldives government is now alarmed at the amount of debt it owes to China. With the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism-dependent islands are now finding it difficult to repay the Chinese debt that the previous government took. India and China have been trying to gain clout in the region. Under Former President Abdullah Yameen’s government, China invested millions of dollars in infrastructure projects under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, in 2018 Yameen faced election defeat. In an interview with BBC, the current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed said that the Chinese debt amounts to...

In April 2019, analysts at Rhodium Group in Hong Kong sat down to assess the financial viability of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). What they found surprised them. The second Belt and Road Forum had just wrapped up in Beijing and policymakers in the mainland and beyond were starting to voice their concerns. Western leaders feared that China was drowning the emerging world in general, and Africa in particular, in a new wave of debt. Officials in Beijing pushed back against charges of ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, but they were beginning to stick.China had internal reasons to fret. From the outset,...

A centuries-old puzzle, sometimes used as a practical joke, is the Chinese finger trap. It’s a simple woven bamboo tube into which an unsuspecting victim puts both index fingers but then cannot release themselves from the tight bondage of the tube, no matter how hard he pulls. This brings to mind the "one belt, one road" project advanced by China all over the world, especially in Africa, South America, and the poorer parts of Asia. A poor country, grateful for Chinese aid, readily accepts the offer of a road or bridge. After completion, China asks for payment as per the...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Thursday passed a law installing a powerful economic commission to administer a huge Chinese luxury oceanside development after altering elements of the bill ruled unconstitutional by the country’s top court. The bill to create the Colombo Port City Economic Commission passed with a 149-58 vote in Sri Lanka’s 225-member Parliament. The CHEC Port City Colombo company, a unit of China Communications Construction Company, invested $1.4 billion for reclamation of land and construction of infrastructure adjacent to the Port of Colombo. In return, it obtained the right to use 62 hectares (153 acres)...

On April 21, the Australian government intervened to cancel the state of Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road deal with Beijing stating that the arrangement was inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy and national interests. The move was criticised by a Chinese diplomat who noted it would not help improve bilateral relations which became tense over the last year as Australia refused to kowtow to economic coercion and took measures to protect itself from Beijing’s interference. While Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ state Labor government has been relatively silent since the federal government’s intervention, many experts and politicians who support classical liberal values...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at the G7 summit that Italy is reassessing China’s investments in the country “carefully,” shifting away from the pro-Beijing policies of the previous government. Draghi expressed concern about the Chinese Communist regime. “It’s an autocracy that does not adhere to multilateral rules and does not share the same vision of the world that the democracies have,” he said at a press conference of the Group of Seven (G7) summit on Sunday. While the newcomer of the G7 admitted the importance of economic cooperation, Draghi noted the difference between the Chinese regime and the West....

In two separate incidents on July 14 and 17, Chinese nationals working on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Pakistan and Mali were attacked. Among them, nine Chinese nationals in Pakistan died, and three in Mali were kidnapped.According to Dawn, a local news network in Pakistan, on July 14, a bus full of laborers on its way to a local construction site, exploded and fell into a ravine killing 13 and injuring 28. Among the 13 killed, nine were Chinese nationals. They were heading towards the site of a tunnel being built as part...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is facing growing opposition from participating countries as their debts associated with Chinese projects mount, according to a recent study. Launched in 2013 by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the BRI might be losing its impetus due to a debt-based backlash, according to a study from AidData, a research lab at William & Mary’s Global Research Institute.The study analyzed 13,427 projects backed by China in more than 165 countries over 18 years. The projects’ total value amounts to $843 billion.AidData found that 35 percent of BRI’s projects dealt with implementation problems, “such as corruption scandals,...

China is poised to make an exclusive entry into post-U.S. Afghanistan with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source close to government officials in Afghanistan told The Daily Beast that Kabul authorities are growing more intensively engaged with China on an extension of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—the flagship project of BRI, which involves the construction of highways, railways and energy pipelines between Pakistan and China—to Afghanistan.