To deal with a power shortage, the National Development and Reform Commission announced on Tuesday that it will, in an orderly manner, lift the electricity price restrictions and will not cap the price increase for high energy consumption companies. Financial experts believe that if China continues to ban coal imports, the coal shortage will remain an issue. It will also have a devastating impact on the high energy-consuming industries such as steel and chip manufacturing.

As price restrictions are lifted, the government is hoping that it will give coal manufacturers and power companies more incentives to find coal. Beijing has imposed a restriction on coal imports from Australia. China imported 780,000 tons of coal from Australia in the first half of the year, down 98.6 percent compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile the price of coal has risen by more than 100 percent.

The electricity price increase will not only impact high energy consumption industries but also residential consumers. In China, industrial electricity consumption is close to 70 percent while residential electricity consumption is about 14 percent. Even though the head of the Commission gave his assurance that the increase in the price of electricity will not impact residential consumers, Huaxi Securities previously predicted that the rise in electricity prices will directly and indirectly affect the consumer price index.

Since late September, a number of cities in three northeastern provinces suddenly had power outages for as short as 5 hours or as long as more than 10 hours. Power outages have caused an inconvenience to people’s lives as many people complained that they couldn’t charge their phones and couldn’t make online payments or contact their relatives and friends. Some areas even had a water outage as well and the schools were forced to close. Later on, the power crisis was extended to 20 provinces throughout the country.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 12, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ac-10122021051920.html

An online survey “Worker’s Lives Matter!” is gaining popularity in China. It is a collection of the working hours for employees who work for high tech and other well-known companies. The survey is sparking a debate about the so-called “overtime culture” in China.

“Worker’s Lives Matter!” – Workers also need to live was launched by four recent college graduates. They posted a form on GitHub for tech company employees to fill out listing their company’s name, their position, and their daily working hours.

By last Thursday, more than 4,000 people had signed up to share their data. The companies they work for include high-tech Internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and Tik Tok.
The collected information shows that most businesses require a five-day work week, but employees actually work between 10 and 12 hours a day.

Working long hours has been a hot topic in China’s high-tech companies and in other white-collar jobs. In 2019, tech company employees launched a similar online initiative to bring the 996 model to the public’s attention for the first time. 996 means employees work from 9 in the morning till 9 in the evening, six days a week.

In recent months, criticism of overtime has been growing. The government’s recent crackdown on high-tech companies has also begun to focus on the treatment of their employees. This year, Internet companies such as Tik Tok, Kuaishou and Meituan have begun cutting their mandatory weekend overtime. In August, China’s Supreme Court ruled that the 996 model is illegal.

Source: Deutsche Welle, October 14, 2021
https://p.dw.com/p/41gnO