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Heap_Good_Firewater t1_j0roi94 wrote

Reply to comment by lughnasadh in The IEA says humanity used the greatest amount of coal in 2022 in all of human history, and that this level of consumption will continue until at least 2025. One-third of all global coal goes to generate electricity in China, and India's coal use is growing at 6% per annum. by lughnasadh

Electricity isn’t used to create steel, glass and cement. In the 5 years after the 2008 financial crisis, China used more cement than the US has used in all of history.

Much of this construction was directed toward speculative properties that will never be lived in.

China doesn’t give a fuck.

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disisdashiz t1_j0s27th wrote

It's more how it's run. So local communist party leaders bid for large projects to a government that needs to spend money or face the massive amount of debt piling up. They get these. Which pushes them higher up in the politics. Also gets them and all their friends a bunch of bribe money. It was also to get all the farmers and country folk to leave the countryside. Which happened. But not as much as they hoped.

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Glodraph t1_j0rxv5m wrote

Yep..all fake buildings like the ones demolished when evergrande went bankrupt

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Kryosite t1_j0s5hhw wrote

Not fake buildings, the buildings are mostly real houses, it's just a colossal real estate bubble, possibly the largest in history. Due to the volatility of the Chinese stock market, real estate is seen as the most common personal investment, as it is less likely to lose its value by crossing the Party. (Empty houses are really good at not pissing people off.)

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