The shallow banks of the river are due to low water levels caused by the dry season.
China is trying to stem threats to social stability ahead of a Communist Party leadership transition later this year, but it just can't stop hurting from one crisis to another
Grains, aluminum, and battery materials used in electric vehicles are at risk due to the energy crisis and power shortages. Companies are warning of disruptions in the supply chain and mega cities are turning off the lights.
The Three Gorges Dam is the world's biggest power plant and feeds farms that provide a lot of the country's food.
The province of Sichuan has a high dependency on hydropower. The worst dry spell in more than 50 years has been caused by high temperatures and little precipitation. Since July, the rain along the river is 45% below average.
The heat has caused electricity demand to surge by about 25%. That puts added pressure on an energy network that serves a population about the size of Germany and supplies to industrial hubs that are home to factories of suppliers toTesla
The current outages raise long-term questions about China's reliance on hydropower, the country's largest source of clean energy that accounted for 18% of power generation in 2020.
About 18% of power generation in 2020 was generated by dams.
There is a source for this.
hydropower is not as reliable as coal despite being seen as the most stable source of renewable energy. The fact that wind and solar are not stable raises doubts about how smoothly China can shift away from fossil fuels.
The impact was felt in other areas. The famous light show on the Yangtze River in central Hubei province was stopped.
The harvest of hundreds of millions of tons of grain that is gathered in the fall could be in danger due to the dry weather.
Though the extent of crop losses still depends on the weather and the energy crunch is less severe than in 2021, it is adding to challenges authorities are faced with in reviving the economy. The timing couldn't be more awkward, coming months before the leader of the world's most populous nation seeks a third term.
David Fickling said that the problems being experienced in the backyard of the Three Gorges are a warning to other economies in Asia.
China is doing everything it can to stop the property crisis from hurting the economy.
Chinese banks lowered their benchmark lending rates after the policy rate was cut.
Special loans will be offered to developers to ensure that housing projects are delivered to buyers. According to people familiar with the matter, that funding could reach over two decades worth of money.
Bank lending to the real estate sector fell for the first time in a decade.
The crisis in Beijing has led to a plunge in home sales and a decline in property investment.
Hundreds of thousands of middle-class Chinese are stuck in limbo after making down payments and taking out loans on properties that are now struggling to be completed. A threat to social stability has been caused by some homebuyers boycotting mortgage payments.
The easing might not be over. According to a commentary in the Securities Times, the reserve requirement ratio could be reduced by the end of the decade. A move like that could provide more cash to the lender to help them lower their rates. Li Daokui, a former adviser to the PBOC, thinks the main interest rates could be lowered by as much as half a point because of the country's strong trade surplus.
The reserve requirement ratio for banks has been decreasing.
The people's bank of china
The government's official GDP growth goal of around 5.5% is out of reach due to the property slump and Covid lockdowns. In light of that, China has stepped up its economicStimulus with a further 1 trillion yuan of funding mostly focused on infrastructure spending as part of a broader plan.
The 19-point policy package, which includes flexibility for local authorities to support the real estate market, won't be enough to lift the overall growth rate.
China's infrastructure investment has increased.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is a company
The weak property sector and disruptions from Covid controls will cause overall growth to remain sluggish.
The covid outbreak in China is abating.
The number of local infections in China fell for the fourth day in a row. There are still elevated cases in Tibet. Yiwu, the world's biggest hub for Christmas goods, is lifting its lock down, even though some small towns are still locked down.
There are diseases in China's tourism hot spots.
The National Health Commission is the source of this information.
Foreign students will be allowed into the country for the first time in more than two years.
More than 1 million students are expected to enroll in the US in the next school year, but China welcomed more than half a million foreign students last year. South Korea was the country with the most students from China.
Beijing is still holding fast to its Covid Zero approach despite allowing some students to enter on an ad-hoc basis.
The Chinese state media had to remind them.
The People's Daily said in an article that using herd immunity to contain Covid would be devastating for the economy and society.
The country has a sluggish economy and a lot of vacancies.
Hong Kong is attempting to keep zombies safe.
With people increasingly using their mobile phones while crossing the street, authorities have put on red lights to illuminate the crossing points. The hope is that people will stop and look at their devices as the sidewalk lights up.
Keeping pedestrians safe while crossing busy roads is one of the goals of the six-month trial in the financial hub. It is possible to help the visually impaired with audible signals. When it's safe to cross, Australia has touch panels that vibrate.
The new lights in Hong Kong have not gone over well.
As she waited to cross the road at one of the trial spots, Shirley Chan stared at her phone with her ear phones in. She said pedestrians would quickly become oblivious because of the lights.
The 50-year-old said that he would get used to it.
In the first six months of this year, seven pedestrians have died, with four of them involving signals not being observed.
Alex Chan wondered if the lighting effect would scare people, especially during Ghost month, when spirits of the dead walk the earth.
The accountant asked if he thought it was frightening.
It's probably less frightening than dying.
The producers of a Hollywood movie may be surprised by the end of the movie.
The finale of the animated film "Minions: The Rise of Gru" was changed by the Chinese censors to make it seem like good triumph over evil.
The Chinese version of the movie says that supervillain Gru gave up his life of crime and returned to being a family man. In the original, where Steve Carell voiced the character, he rode off with a co-conspirator to avoid being captured.
The changes have been ridiculed on Chinese social media, with a # referring to the changed ending on Weibo getting over 1.7 million views. One user commented that the new ending is very China.
This may be the price Hollywood has to pay in order to distribute its movies in China. Only 28 American movies were released in China last year, accounting for 12% of total market share, down from more than 50 titles that added up to 32% of box office revenues.
We finally caught on to a few other stories.
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