newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A massive drought, combined with record high temperatures, has wreaked havoc on China’s economy, causing it to close factories and endure rolling blackouts.
China’s Sichuan province, one of China’s most populous and fastest-growing industrial centers, has been hit by a severe drought, with little rain to power hydroelectric dams. Is not …to Shanghai The New York Times reported this week.
A lack of rain, exacerbated by scorching temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, is leaving rivers with unusually low water levels. This shortage is preventing the dam from supplying enough power to support Sichuan province. As a result, factories in the area were forced to close, sometimes for a week at a time.
In addition to factory closures, power shortages have also caused rolling blackouts in some areas downstream from Sichuan, such as Chongqing and neighboring Hubei province.
Dean Cheng, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Asian Studies, told Fox News Digital: “China’s entire river system is drying up. The Chinese are trying to redirect rivers from the south to the plains of northern China, including Beijing.
Rainfall in the Yangtze River Basin is about 45% lower than normal since July, and high temperatures are likely to continue for at least another week, the official forecast said.
As many as 66 rivers across 34 counties in Chongqing have dried up, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday.
“In the case of the Yangtze, part of the problem is that the river continues all the way to the sea near Shanghai. Once we start requiring them to operate, it starts impacting our ability to move things out of the country with respect to products, and it also moves up the internal supply chain.”
Chen said China’s continued support for coronavirus lockdowns has exacerbated energy shortages and supply chain problems, making the economy even more crippled.
China’s central bank said on Monday it would cut the five-year rate by 0.15 percentage points and sharply lower the mortgage reference to boost Beijing’s efforts to revive its economy.
China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, narrowly avoided contraction in the second quarter, and a slew of data released last week showed the economy unexpectedly slowed in July, pushing Goldman Sachs and Nomura down. Some global investment banks including have been forced to revise down completely. Annual GDP growth forecast for China.
Reuters contributed to this report