Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vows ‘resolute efforts’ to prevent power cuts amid ‘skyrocketing’ energy prices

Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to stamp out electricity cuts like those that hit the economy last year

Concerns about energy supply in China have been building as the war in Ukraine drives up prices

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Skyrocketing global energy prices due to the Ukraine war have put China on alert. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30pm, 20 May 2022Updated: 10:53am, 7 Jul 2022

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said there will be no repeat of the power crisis that rocked the country last year, as Beijing doubles down on energy security amid spillovers from geopolitical tensions.

Li pledged “resolute efforts” to stamp out electricity cuts while inspecting a power coordination centre in southwestern province of Yunnan this week, according to the official Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.

His comments come just days after the Communist Party’s flagship magazine Qiushi published details of a December speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he vowed the government “will never allow a major incident like large-scale power cuts to happen again”.

The comments signal a significant policy shift in China’s approach to reach carbon neutrality.

More than 20 out of China’s 31 provincial-level jurisdictions suffered electricity cuts last year, which has been called a “man-made crisis” due to local authorities’ aggressive attempts to meet Beijing’s carbon-reduction targets, as well as a shortage of coal.

Though the situation has eased since then, concerns about energy supply in China, the world’s largest consumer, have been building this year amid soaring global fossil fuel prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.

In a statement on Thursday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning agency in China, put the country on alert for the impact of “skyrocketing oil and gas prices caused by international geopolitical conflicts”, though it noted authorities were dealing appropriately with the situation.