Chinese switch to flashlights, generators amid power cuts

By EMILY WANG FUJIYAMA
Associated Press

SHENYANG, China (AP) — People in northeastern China are eating breakfast by flashlight and shopkeepers are turning on generators as much of the country enforces power cuts to meet official conservation targets. The outages also are meant to ease the strain on supplies in some areas. Factories in China’s busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week, prompting concern global supplies of smartphones and other goods might be disrupted. Now, urban neighborhoods are being blacked out, triggering pleas on social media for the government to solve the problem. News reports blame high coal prices that they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand. But officials also are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.