Chinese use flashlights, generators amid power cuts

Steam billows out of the cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Nanjing. Pic/AP

People ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as cities across China enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas.

News reports blame high coal prices they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand, while economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

In Shenyang, the northeast's most populous city, restaurant owner Li Yufeng used a battery from an electric bicycle to run a pot for noodles after seeing a notice power would be switched off at 7:30 am. Li said he started work two hours early, at 6 am, to prepare chicken, sauces and other dishes.

Factories in China's busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week, prompting concern global supplies of smartphones and other goods might be disrupted. Now, urban neighbourhoods are being blacked out. China's power consumption is growing at almost double its usual rate, while the ruling Communist Party is trying to reduce energy intensity. The power cuts come as global leaders prepare to attend a UN environmental conference by video link on October 12-13 in the city of Kunming. That increases pressure on President Xi Jinping's government, as the meeting's host, to show it is sticking to emissions and energy efficiency targets.

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