China’s coal crisis – a lack of power kills

China’s planned economic growth clashes with its market-driven demand for coal. This is the cause of its appalling record on mining deaths, says Paul French.

As a young boy in England I remember sitting round the kitchen table in north London with candles lit as we endured the power cuts during the 1978-79 “Winter of Discontent”. It was all a bit of fun to a child. However, power cuts have economic ramifications – production slows or stops, output falls, orders don’t get filled and profit is lost. Then factories close and people lose their jobs. Not good.

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