Links for Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Europe buys Chinese electric blankets to stay warm amid sky-high energy prices
Sales of made-in-China electric blankets surge as Europe’s homeowners struggle with soaring fuel bills / SCMP (paywall)
“The energy crisis engulfing Europe is making consumers turn to a solution thousands of miles away: electric blankets from China.”

Early marriage in the countryside
Promises of marriage give way to girls’ education / China Daily
“Yet that old custom hurts the girls’ rights. Being ‘promised’ to a boy means their future might be limited. It might result in marrying too early losing higher education opportunities, for example.”

What’s old is new again for China’s online shoppers
China’s booming second-hand market shows how ‘newness’ is losing its shine / SCMP (paywall)
“Hundreds of millions of China’s second-hand ecommerce shoppers are finding the market heavily saturated after decades of consumption-fuelled economic growth.”

Speculation grows over an ease to COVID curbs in China
China will likely ease COVID restrictions and reopen the country by spring 2023 / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Morgan Stanley joined other major investment banks in predicting China will likely ease Covid restrictions and reopen the country by spring next year, providing a possible boost to the economy’s recovery.”
Yesterday on The China Project: Will Beijing follow Hong Kong and loosen COVID-zero?

China is churning out renewable energy
China could exceed renewables generation target of 33% by 2025 / S&P Global
“China is on track to meet its 33% electricity consumption target from renewables by 2025 and could comfortably exceed it amid ongoing efforts to debottleneck the power grid to accommodate more renewables, analysts and clean energy project developers said.”

Is China’s authoritarian system abusing or helping ecological agriculture?
Prometheus and the fishpond / Made in China
A historical account of agricultural systems and eco-political power in China: “The risk that ecopolitics in China will further empower an oppressive, Promethean state is thus profound. At the same time, the legitimacy the state provides to ecological agriculture opens real opportunities for people seeking to make positive change.”

COVID curbs and climate change threaten China’s resource security
Protecting the rice bowl: China’s relentless quest for food security / World of Chinese
“With COVID-19 affecting domestic farming and global food supplies, can China ever reach its goal of food security?”
How China’s extreme weather summer is affecting its security / Diplomat
“Climate shocks are impacting China’s energy, water, and food security ambitions.”
China facing devastating impacts from climate change / Strategist

Shanghai women only want to have one kid, if any at all
China’s wealthiest city explores why only 1 out of 8 mothers from Shanghai have a second child / SCMP (paywall)
“Health authorities in China’s wealthiest city are trying to understand how reproductive decisions are being made, while a demographer warns that this year’s fertility rate could be even worse, due to the pandemic.”