Editing Beijing apos;s Australian Coal Blockade Plunges Dozen Cities Into Darkness

Beijing's blockade of Australian coal is backfiring, with a dozen cities forcing residents and office buildings to ration their electricity use.<br>The politically-inflicted situation is so bad street lights have been turned off in the city of Yiwu in 's eastern Zheijiang province as factories are down to part-time hours.<br>In the coastal city of Wenzhou, local Chinese Communist Party authorities have demanded businesses refrain from heating their office unless temperatures are close to freezing.<br>Southern China's Hunan Province is awash with reports on social media platform Weibo of workers in Changsha having to climb dozens of flights of stairs after elevators were shut down.<br>Scroll down for video <br>        Beijing's blockade of Australian coal is backfiring with a dozen cities forcing residents and office buildings to ration their electricity use. Southern China's Hunan Province is awash with reports on social media platform Weibo of workers in Changsha (pictured) climbing dozens of flights of stairs after lifts were shut down<br>'I've never had so much trouble going to the office,' a Changsha-based office worker, who didn't wish to be named told the London-based .<br>He was trapped in an elevator for 40 minutes last week because of a power shortage.<br>Despite the widespread media reports, Zhao Chenxin, the secretary general of China's National Development and Reform Commission, denied household electricity consumption had been affected in the adjoining Hunan, Zheigiang or Jiangxi provinces.<br>  RELATED ARTICLES                <br><br><br><br>Share this article<br>Share<br>3.6k shares<br><br><br>'In general, please believe that our ability to ensure stable energy supply is not a problem,' he told a media conference covered by Chinese state-run new wire service Xinhua on Monday.<br>Former resources minister Matt Canavan weighed in, arguing Australia was better off trying to find other export markets instead of trying to repair relations with China's Communist Party regime.<br>'There are a lot of people out there who need to be fed, a lot of people who want to switch lights on,' he told Sky News on Tuesday.<br>      As of November, 66 vessels carrying Australian thermal coal have been prevented from unloading the cargo, data from finance news wire Bloomberg and commodity analytics group Kpler showed.<br>Last month, Beijing blocked Australian coal imports, [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-nam-ninh-truong-gia-gioi-phuong-hoang-co-tran-6-ngay.html kynghidongduong.vn] which has resulted in 80 ships carrying more than $1.1billion in blacklisted cargo being stranded off the Chinese coast.<br>In one example, Gaurav Singh, a 29-year-old Indian navigation officer, left Hay Point in north Queensland on July 20 and arrived in northern China's Jintang Port on August 3.<br>        Cities in the Hunan, Jianggix and Zhejiang provinces have been plunged into darkness as a result of the Chinese Communist Party's blockage of Australian coal<br>      But when the MV Anastasia prepared to unload the cargo, Chinese officials told the crewmen they were not allowed to dock - or leave<br>Mr Singh told Daily Mail Australia that after five long months caught in the middle of China's escalating trade assault - the crew of 18 were getting desperate.<br>'Mentally we are really struggling... one of our crew tried to commit suicide on board the ship. Everyone is growing very frustrated and angry.'<br>'We are getting punished for a crime that we have not committed. We are seeking every possible way out, but we are helpless.'<br>Last year, before the global Covid pandemic, China bought $7billion worth of Australian thermal coal exports.<br>Australia supplied China with 57 per cent of its [http://www.medcheck-up.com/?s=thermal thermal] coal needs, with the Communist power being Australia's biggest trading partner and export market.<br>        As of November, 66 vessels carrying Australian thermal coal have been prevented from unloading the cargo, data from finance news wire Bloomberg and commodity analytics group Kpler showed. Pictured is the MV Anastasia banned from docking at China's Jintang Port since August<br>        Last month, Beijing blocked Australian coal imports, which has resulted in 80 ships carrying more than $1.1billion in blacklisted cargo being stranded off the Chinese coast. In one example, Gaurav Singh, a 29-year-old Indian navigation officer, left Hay Point in north Queensland on July 20 and arrived in northern China's Jintang Port on August 3<br>In early 2019, a year before the first case of coronavirus came to Australia, [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-nam-ninh-truong-gia-gioi-phuong-hoang-co-tran-6-ngay.html tour du lịch phượng hoàng cổ trấn] China held up Australian coal in the northern Dalian port in response to the ban on  Chinese tech giant Huawei from installing 5G mobile phone networks in Australia.<br>China's trade sanctions on Australia had intensified since May, when 80 per cent tariffs were imposed on Australian barley after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.<br>Australian wine in November was hit with import tariffs of up to 212 per cent, following Chinese obstacles on Australian exporters of timber, lobsters, beef and lamb.<br>While Chinese consumers can get lower-quality wine from somewhere else, the delaying of Australian coal shipments demonstrates the worst aspects of the Communist Party's command and control economy.<br><br><br><br><br>data-track-module="am-external-links^external-links"><br>Read more:<br><br><br><br><br><br>DM.later('bundle', function()<br>DM.has('external-source-links', 'externalLinkTracker');<br>);