Next China: Coal Crunch Knocks Out the Lights

Residents intermittently lost power across northeastern China. Offices stopped elevators calling at their first three floors in the southern province of Guangdong. A state-owned carmaker told staff to shut off the air conditioning and open a window instead.

Those were some of the scenes as escalating electricity shortages threatened to hobble economic growth and snarl global supply chains. The power crunch that’s affected over half of China’s provinces was not, however, the result of some unforeseen calamity. It was an example of Beijing’s long-term goals crashing very hard into the country’s realities.