Production almost stopped in mid-December, as local officials turned off the lights.
Ma Heru, who works for a manufacturer of paper decorations for Christmas and New Year, said her factory is struggling to meet demand because she is only allowed to work half a day. “We have a lot of orders, but we don’t have enough time to make them,” he said.
Officials in China’s Zhejiang province are vying to meet the five-year energy consumption target set by the central government, which ends on December 31. Earlier this month, local directives instructed businesses to stop and use only elevators below the third floor. Heat when the temperature drops below 3 સે C (37 ફેર F)
“There is no shortage of power supply [in Zhejiang]. Some places in the province have taken steps to curb the use of electricity to save energy and reduce emissions, said Zhao Chanxin, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The campaign to reduce energy consumption has disrupted the lives of millions of people. Despite a daytime temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), the heat was turned off in the city, Yiwu, offices, shopping malls, schools and hospitals of one million people.
The sudden decline in power consumption in Zhejiang highlights both the strengths and difficulties of China’s political system. While the Communist Party can make ambitious promises to reduce carbon emissions, the implementation of strengthening targets can come at a cost to the people for which they ultimately benefit.
“Difficult year”
Some accused the Yiwu government of sacrificing public safety to tick the boxes on political report cards.
Officers restarted some lights after the backline response. “The lights were off for only a few days. Most of them have now been turned on,” the government’s hotline operator told CNN on Wednesday.
But other restrictions are in place. Yin Mingfai, manager of a cafરના in a shopping center in the city’s Central Business District, said the heating had been off for about two weeks, and the electronic advertising billboards and escalators were not working.
The city’s factories and workshops, whose businesses had previously suffered from a coronavirus epidemic earlier this year, were ordered to reduce or stop production when orders were flooding.
December would be the busiest time of the year for Liu Lei, who runs a small workshop with his wife making a red envelope for the lunar new year in the Yiv suburbs. But he has been ordered to work on a two-day, two-day leave until the end of the year To save power.
“Of course the effect [on my business] Is huge. Orders are running in red envelopes, but I have no way of knowing enough, “Liu said.” So I had to turn around a bit. “
Targeted political culture
Similar debris has happened in the past – on a large scale and for many months. In 2010, the final year of China’s 11th Five-Year Plan, measures were taken to restrict electricity consumption in Zhejiang and more than half a dozen other provinces.
“This is common in China,” said Trey McAuver, a partner at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium. It is the result of a targeted political culture.
Without democratic elections, most Chinese officials climb the ladder of political careers in an influence-based evaluation system, where goals on economic development, social stability, and increasingly environmental protection play a key role in their promotion opportunities.
To meet Beijing’s policy goals set out in the country’s five-year plans, under Xi’s dictatorial rule, local officials are kept under more pressure – filtered from the central government.
The five-year plans are a legacy of China’s command economy during the Mao era. These high-level policy blueprints set the country’s social and economic development goals for the coming period. The 13th Five Year Plan covers 2016 to 2020.
Competitive goals
The province is allowed to consume only 23.8 million tonnes of coal Above the level of 2015 by 2020, however, there are signs that it is being used a lot.
The problem with targets is that officers are often more than one to meet and they are not always complementary, said Advisor McCarver. “Local officials are focusing primarily on other targets, such as GDP growth, employment and government revenue, as there is a tedious reason to meet these targets in the end,” he said.
Coronavirus initially helped emit targets, but the rush to revive the economy has left it behind, analysts said. “China’s rapid economic recovery from the epidemic depends heavily on energy-intensive industries,” said Li Shuo, a senior climate policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia.
For yew growers, production also improved following an increase in post-summer orders. But it proved to be short-lived.
Mae, who makes and sells festive decorations, said it has been a particularly difficult year for the business, first because of the epidemic and now because of electricity restrictions.
“We were earning more than a million yuan (૧ 150,000), but with all the disruptions this year, we don’t really know how much we can earn,” he said.
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