Chinese city issues Mao-era coupons amid fuel shortage
Allows families up to two tons of coal for heating
A Chinese city is reviving a Mao-era policy of handing out coal coupons to the public as the country struggles with shortages of the fuel.
Shuozhou, in northern China, is handing out coupons to 47,000 families allowing them to purchase two tons of coal.
China has struggled with a shortage of coal that has shut down some factories as they face power outages. It has demanded that coal miners boost output, sending production to record levels, despite environmental protests from the West.
Social media users in the region have compared the coupons with rationing policies introduced by former leader Mao Zedong in the 1950s, in which households were given vouchers allowing them to purchase essential goods. The centralized system allowed the Communist party to manage the supply of household items, but had been abandoned as the economy liberalized.
According to the statebacked China Youth Daily newspaper, the Shuozhou coupons would be enough to take families through what is expected to be an unusually cold winter in China.
The paper said that households had started stockpiling other fuel sources such as dried corn cobs in anticipation of a shortage over the winter. It comes despite
Shuozhou being home to the country’s biggest open-pit mine, according to Bloomberg.
The local government in Shuozhou is distributing the coupons despite stockpiles of coal being built back up as mining output jumps. The number of provinces and coal-fired power plants reporting dangerously low stockpiles has fallen sharply. China’s coal crunch came at a difficult time for environmentalists, making President Xi Jinping and Beijing officials more reluctant to sign commitments to ending the use of coal during negotiations at COP26.
Millions of households in the country still rely on coalfired heaters despite efforts to move them to gas or electricity.
Although the country has invested heavily in renewables, it continued to count on coal for almost two-thirds of its energy supply in 2019, according to the International Energy Agency.
Prices tripled in the year to mid-october, but orders to boost output have slashed prices since then. The cost of thermal coal halved after authorities sought to get a grip on the market, but government intervention in the production and price of coal is expected to continue for months.