Secret Coal Plants Reveal China’s Strategy of the ‘Green’ Mirage

A Chinese state owned coal-fired power plant is seen in Huainan, Anhui province, China, June 16, 2017. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Commentary

Despite claims that it would reduce coal use, the Chinese regime has quietly renewed its construction of coal-fired power plants.

The findings were based on recent satellite images that show the regime has resumed construction on dozens of coal-fired power plants, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The new construction was exposed in a joint report from the Global Energy Monitor, Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club.

As Deutsche Welle notes, this goes against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) own measures in 2012 and 2013 to allegedly slow the growth of its coal industry, and its promise to cap coal consumption. The broadcaster reported that the CCP also has been putting cash behind more coal-fired plants abroad.

This shows that while the CCP has been paying lip service to “clean energy” and has backed international programs to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, it has maintained its own programs for cheap and effective energy.

At the same time, by promoting less profitable and less effective energy programs in Europe and elsewhere, the CCP has been taking a road that could allow it to dominate the market.

Unrestricted Warfare

These actions tie closely to military strategies outlined in the CCP’s unrestricted warfare systems—specifically to resource warfare and international law warfare (also called “legal warfare”). Environmental warfare combines both of these concepts.

According to the Chinese military book “Unrestricted Warfare,“ resource warfare is described as ”grabbing riches by plundering stores of resources,“ and legal warfare is described as ”seizing the earliest opportunity to set up regulations.”

“The goal of this kind of warfare will encompass more than merely ‘using means that involve the force of arms to force the enemy to accept one’s own will,’” the book states.

“Rather, the goal should be ’to use all means whatsoever—means that involve the force of arms and means that do not involve the force of arms, means that involve military power and means that do not involve military power, means that entail casualties and means that do not entail casualties—to force the enemy to serve one’s own interests.'”

In the strategic sense, resource warfare could be the intentional destruction of land to deny its use to an adversary—such as when Russia burned farmland while falling back from Napoleon’s forces, causing Napoleon’s army to starve.

When it comes to legal warfare, this includes the manipulation of laws and regulations to control or deny access to key resources, such as iron ore, rare earth minerals, or energy sources like oil and natural gas.

The CCP demonstrated this strategy’s use in September 2010, when it was trying to seize control of Japan’s Senkaku Islands. After Japan detained a Chinese fisherman in the disputed waters, the CCP answered by banning the sale of rare earth minerals to Japan.

Its control of the rare earth market acted as a symbolic gun to the head of Japan’s high-tech industry—and likewise the Japanese economy.

In other words, the CCP used a legal warfare method to seize control of territory.

Environmental Warfare

Now let’s get into fossil fuels and greenhouse gases—and whichever side of the fence you’re on with global warming, forget about it for a moment. We’re going to look at this purely from the angle of strategy.

When it comes to the current topic of coal energy, the CCP had been speaking with two tongues. On one side, it was paying lip service to clean energy and claiming it would lead this charge. On the other side, it wasn’t changing anything—and it even continued its track record of being the top offender on greenhouse-gas emissions.

The energy business is strategically valuable—not just for controlling the ability to power armies, economies, and national infrastructure—but also on its power to influence other nations.

Russia was keenly aware of this concept, and has used its control of natural gas to sway politics in Europe. Leaked State Department cables in 2009 showed that Russia was planning to exert similar control with nuclear energy, and was specifically targeting Eastern Europe.

Russia’s known ambitions to use energy markets for political influence were part of the controversy when the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton held its March 6, 2009, “reset” with Russia, and helped approve Russia’s purchase of uranium company Uranium One—as millions of dollars poured into the Clinton Foundation.

When it comes to the debates around global warming, China is the greatest abuser on greenhouse-gas emissions. As Deutsche Welle notes, coal is the worst offender in carbon emissions, and while most of the world was pushing to phase out coal energy, global demand for coal rose by 0.7 percent. It states, “Almost all of that growth came from Asia and especially China, where coal power generation of electricity rose by more than 5 percent.”

Going by these numbers, and the Chinese regime’s environmental track record that includes reckless destruction of its own natural resources, it’s fair to say that the CCP cares very little about how its industry affects the environment.

But the CCP claims it cares. This has a few facets to it. Part of the reason the CCP supports restricting greenhouse-gas emissions is that international regulations cripple its competitors, and enable it to buy up resources going at fire sale prices.

Also, the CCP controls a strong portion of the “clean energy” tech movement, including through its monopoly on rare earth minerals used in solar panels and wind turbines, and its ability to underprice competitors in wind turbine technology, which its military hackers—“Unit 61398”—stole from U.S. company American Superconductor Corp.

This brings us to the Paris climate accord, which was an international agreement to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement, criticizing it as a deal that would have placed heavy restrictions on U.S. companies while giving free rein to the major abusers, including China.

Ironically, the Trump administration—with restrictions lifted on producing clean-burning natural gas—has managed to cut carbon emissions even without the restrictions in the Paris accord—so much so that the United States is now the world leader in cutting carbon emissions. It’s outpaced all the critics from Canada to Europe, and all the way to China.

Meanwhile, according to The Heartland Institute, “China’s carbon dioxide emissions rose at the fastest rate in seven years during the first quarter of 2018, according to Greenpeace. China is the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter and its government data show the country’s carbon dioxide emissions were 4 percent higher in the first quarter of 2018 than at the same time in 2017.”

The Paris accord would have allowed the CCP to dominate the energy market. The new findings on the CCP’s coal-fired plants show that, despite all its talk about clean energy, it was all just hot air.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.