China suffers blackouts consequent to trade sanctions against Australia

Beijing/Canberra: – It has been revealed that the Chinese population is suffering the effects of the trade embargo imposed by the Chinese communist regime against Australia. Last year, the Chinese communist regime ordered the blacklisting of Australian coal. Accordingly, the coal imports from Australia were stopped, spelling trouble for many of the Chinese thermal power plants. Therefore, four Chinese provinces are facing constant blackouts for the last two months.

Although the Chinese President Xi Jinping has drawn up major plans for clean energy, China is majorly dependent on coal for fuel and energy in the current scenario. This coal is mainly imported from Australia, Russia, Mongolia and African countries. More than 50% of the coal imports into China are from Australia. As per the statistics for the year 2019, coal, worth USD 14 billion, was imported from Australia.

But it has been observed that there has been a decrease of nearly 78% in importing Australian coal last year. The reason behind this is the trade war which was started by the Chinese communist regime against Australia. Last year, China imposed heavy taxes on the fish, marine products, cotton, meat, and wine imported from Australia. The coal imported from Australia also was blacklisted. More than 80 Australian ships with coal worth more than USD 1 billion are waiting in the Chinese ports for the last two months. China has refused to unload the coal from these ships.

Although the Australian companies have suffered losses due to this Chinese decision, the primary sufferers of the decision are the Chinese population and its industry sector. There are constant power outages in the southern provinces of Hunan, Xinjiang, Henan and Jiangxi. Many offices have been instructed not to use heating systems unless the temperature reaches near 0 degree Celsius. Load shedding has started even in the residential supply.

The Chinese agencies and officials have confirmed that electricity rationing is on. But reasons like system failure, maintenance work and increased use of electricity are being forwarded for this. In reality, it has been exposed that the power projects in Hunan, Xinjiang, Henan and Jiangxi are not functioning at full capacity due to shortage of coal. Coal is being sourced from Russia, Indonesia and Mongolia to cover the shortfall. But it has become clear that coal has become unviable for power projects as the rates have doubled in the last few weeks.

The decisions taken and the reports published by the Australian government are responsible for China initiating a trade war against Australia. It had been exposed that Chinese interference was increasing tremendously in the industry, technology, education sectors along with the political sector. Australia made various laws and took an aggressive decision, one after the other, to stop this Chinese interference. At the same time, Australia took a firm stand against China, demanding an inquiry into the Coronavirus pandemic. Australia also disregarded the Chinese pressure on the issues like the South China Sea, Hong Kong and 5G.

China, infuriated with these developments, initiated a trade war to teach a lesson to Australia. China intends to get the decisions and stands taken by Australia against China, reversed, by exerting economic pressure on Australia. The Australian leaders and analysts had warned that if China starts imposing unilateral sanctions, it is possible that China itself may take a major. But China had ignored the warnings. With these blackouts in the Chinese provinces, it is apparent that the trade war imposed on Australia has boomeranged on China.