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[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Li Keqiang, Premier of China, who suffered from a power shortage, personally visited a power plant.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency Capture

On the 24th, the Communist Party's official newspaper, People's Daily, reported that Premier Li visited a thermal power plant during his inspection of several economic sites in Shanghai from the 22nd to the 23rd.

At the site, Premier Li stated, "We must ensure the stable supply of coal for power generation" and "We must prevent the reappearance of power supply restrictions."

He further emphasized, "Electricity is the driving force of economic operations, and we must make every effort to take various measures to guarantee power for people's livelihood and normal production for enterprises."

At a meeting with major provincial-level administrative region leaders held on the 22nd, he also stressed, "When implementing economic policies, we must base them on actual conditions and be pragmatic, avoiding campaign-style, assault-style, or one-shot measures," criticizing the rigid carbon emission reduction policies that caused the power crisis.

Due to the global surge in raw material prices causing coal supply instability, combined with the Chinese authorities' rigid 'campaign-style' carbon emission reduction policies, from mid-September to early November, at least 20 out of 31 provincial-level administrative regions nationwide experienced restricted power transmission mainly for industrial electricity, causing significant disruptions in manufacturing production.

Startled by the more severe side effects than expected, the authorities postponed low-carbon policies from October and promoted a large-scale increase in coal production, temporarily resolving the power crisis.

On the 6th, just before the start of the 6th Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which aims to consolidate President Xi Jinping's long-term rule, the Chinese authorities declared the "normalization of power supply."

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, under the authorities' large-scale production increase demands, coal production in October reached 360 million tons, the highest in over six years since March 2016. Recently, China's daily coal production has exceeded 12 million tons, reaching an all-time high.

However, the market expects that the tension in China's coal supply and demand will continue ahead of winter, when both heating coal and power demand increase simultaneously. China relies on coal for nearly 70% of its power generation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.