Tag: Shortages

China’s Extreme Floods and Heat Ravage Farms and Kill Animals

Media Library

The downpour began in late May, drenching the wheat crops in central China. As kernels of wheat blackened in the rain, becoming unfit for human consumption, the government mobilized emergency teams to salvage as much of the harvest as possible. In a viral video, a 79-year-old farmer in Henan Province wiped away tears as he surveyed the damage. The unusually heavy rainfall, which local officials said was the worst disruption to the wheat harvest in a decade, underscored the risks that climate shocks pose to President Xi Jinping’s push for…

Natural Gas Shortages Hit China as Temperatures Plunge

Chin@Strategy

For many people across China, a shortage of natural gas and alarmingly cold temperatures are making a difficult winter unbearable. For Li Yongqiang, they mean freezing nights without heat. “We dare not turn on the heat overnight — after using it for five or six hours, the gas stops again,” Mr. Li, a 45-year-old grocer, said by telephone from his home in northern China’s Hebei Province. “The gas shortage is really affecting our lives.” The lack of natural gas, which is used widely across China to heat homes and businesses,…

China’s Abrupt Covid Pivot Leaves Many Without Medicines

Chin@Strategy

When demand for fever-reducing drugs more than quadrupled the price of ibuprofen, a city in eastern China began rationing sales by selling the pills individually. When a popular Chinese online pharmacy offered the antiviral drug Paxlovid, it sold out within hours. And when word of the medicine shortages in China reached friends and relatives in Hong Kong and Taiwan, they quickly bought vast quantities of drugs from local sellers to ship to the mainland. As Covid rips through parts of China, millions of Chinese are struggling to find treatment —…

As Covid Spreads Fast in China, Beijing Isn’t in Lockdown. But It Feels Like It.

Chin@Strategy

Restaurants have closed because too many staff members have tested positive for Covid. The usually ubiquitous food delivery workers zipping through traffic on their scooters have nearly vanished because of infections. Pharmacies have been emptied of cold medicine, and supermarkets have been running low on the essentials: disinfectant solution, antibacterial wipes, beer. Less than a week after the Chinese government lifted its stringent “zero Covid” restrictions, Beijing looks like a city in the throes of a lockdown — this time, self-imposed by residents. Sidewalks and pedestrian shopping streets are barren,…

‘At the Breaking Point’: Tibetans, Under Lockdown, Make Rare Cries for Help

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — Infected patients quarantined alongside those who tested negative. No food for hours, despite repeated requests. Lines of buses, loaded with people, waiting late into the night to drop them off at makeshift isolation centers. These are the scenes described by residents of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, who have been locked down for one month as officials try to contain a coronavirus outbreak. Lockdowns, including of entire cities, have become almost commonplace in China, which remains bent on eliminating the coronavirus even as the rest of the world…

Your Monday Briefing: Ukraine Gains Ground

Chin@Strategy

Nuclear: Ukraine has begun shutting down the Zaporizhzhia power plant, a safety measure as fighting continues around the facility. China: Russia said a senior Chinese official offered Beijing’s most robust endorsement yet of the invasion. China’s lockdowns hit Xinjiang Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of western China, is under a grueling, weekslong pandemic lockdown. Residents say they face a lack of food and medicine, as well as a drastic shortage of sanitary pads for women. Many of Yining’s 600,000 residents are relying mostly on neighborhood officials to deliver…

Just Bread and Noodles: China’s Covid Lockdown Distress Hits Xinjiang

Chin@Strategy

This summer, Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of far-western China, celebrated a boom of Chinese tourists seeking a sunny respite from Covid worries in their hometowns. Now Yining is under its own grueling, weekslong pandemic lockdown, with residents calling for help over limited food, difficulty getting medicines and drastic shortages of sanitary pads for women. People in the city of 600,000 have been commanded to stay in their homes since early August, forcing many to rely largely on neighborhood officials to deliver supplies. One resident contacted by telephone…

Biden Signs Industrial Policy Bill Aimed at Bolstering Competition With China

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday signed into law a sprawling $280 billion bill aimed at bolstering American chip manufacturing to address global supply chain issues and counter the rising influence of China, part of a renewed effort by the White House to galvanize its base around a recent slate of legislative victories. Standing before business leaders and lawmakers in the Rose Garden, Mr. Biden said the bill was proof that bipartisanship in Washington could produce legislation that would build up a technology sector, lure semiconductor manufacturing back to the…

Economic Headwinds Mount as Leaders Weigh Costs of Confronting Russia

Chin@Strategy

The interruption of wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, which together account for 28 percent of global exports, along with supply chain disruptions, a severe drought in India that has caused it to ban shipments of grain and Covid-related lockdowns in China, are also causing food prices to spiral and increasing global hunger, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. The question for both American and European policymakers is how to corral leaping prices without sending their economies into recession. The Federal Reserve has begun raising interest rates to tame…

Shanghai Declares Victory in Covid Outbreak, but Lockdowns Continue

Chin@Strategy

Shanghai health officials said on Tuesday that the city had brought the Covid outbreak there under control, after a nearly two-month lockdown that disrupted residents’ access to food and medicine, stoked widespread public outrage and brought China’s financial center to a standstill. At a news conference, officials pledged to restart normal life as soon as possible, with a goal of reopening fully by June. Some businesses, bus lines and parks had been allowed to resume operations on Monday. Twelve trains were also allowed to leave from Shanghai’s Hongqiao train station…