China's energy strategies have attracted a huge amount of attention, precisely because they have been so effective. Chinese energy companies - from global oil and gas giants, to new wind and solar power success stories as well as electric grid operators, not to mention rising Electric Vehicle (EV) producers - have all had an impact on the industry, and sometimes shaken it up. In solar Photovoltaic (PV) cells there are aggressive counter-moves being made by both the US (and potentially the EU) against Chinese subsidized exports. These threaten to spill over into related sectors, and could trigger an all-out trade war.

See the link to Part 2 of China's Industrial Energy Revolution

China is undergoing the most astonishing energy transformation underpinning the industrial revolution that is making it the workshop of the world. It is building its ‘black’ energy system at a prodigious rate - building the equivalent of a 1-GW thermal power station every 10 days, and burning vast amounts of coal in doing so. But at the same time it is building a ‘green’ energy system based on non-fossil sources (renewables and nuclear) faster than any other country on earth. China's green revolution is reflected in its targets for building renewable energy systems, which are being expanded as fast as is humanly and technically possible - in the name of energy security and nation-building infrastructure as much as for decarbonizing the economy. Which wins in this close race between black and green development is a matter of the highest importance, for China and for the world.

We have the dubious distinction of being misrepresented by Dr James Hansen, surely the most famous climate scientist in the world. It's not often that two social scientists find themselves dealt with in this way by such a deservedly respected public figure. Not to respond would be to declare defeat or even to agree with Dr Hansen's assertions, and we are inclined to do neither.

China's renewable energy revolution is powering ahead, with the year 2013 marking an important inflection point where the scales tipped more towards electric power generated from water, wind and solar than from fossil fuels and nuclear. This means that its energy security is being enhanced, while carbon emissions from the power sector can be expected to soon start to fall, we argue.

While China's energy system is still largely a “black” system depending on fossil fuel inputs, the electric power system is greening at the margins. We demonstrate, using 2014 data on additions to China's electric power system, that the system is greening– with powerful implications for the future of the country's energy profile. We utilize three lines of argument: first, utilizing data for electric energy generated, where we show that China actually generated less energy from thermal sources in 2014 than in 2013, while increasing generation from water, wind and solar; second, examining capacity additions, we show that new capacity in water, wind and solar (WWS) exceeded new capacity for thermal; and third, in terms of investment. We argue that such data rebut claims made that China is getting blacker while its greening efforts remain small and insubstantial, or that China will become dependent on nuclear power rather than hydro, wind and solar as it cleans its energy system.

Over the past decade, China has been greening its electric power system faster and more thoroughly than any other industrial power. In the course of the years 2007 to 2016, China's dependence on thermal power capacity declined from 77% to 64%, and can be expected to tip below 50% within another decade if the trend continues. In terms of electricity generated, the contribution of thermal power has dipped from 82% to 72% over the last decade. But it is also true that China's growth model continues to pump out greenhouse gases. The issue: is the green transformation happening fast enough?

Two headline stories dominate discussion of China's energy trajectory right now. The first is that reports from three agencies all point to the continuing decline in use of coal in the first half of 2015, continuing a trajectory already notable in 2014. These are not declines in the rate of growth, but absolute declines in the amount of coal consumed in power generation as well as in energy-intensive industries like steel and cement production. This points to the possibility that coal consumption may be peaking much earlier than anticipated in official government statements – and so pointing to an early peaking of carbon emissions. If continued, this would be a ‘Great Reversal’ of China's recent dominant role in consumption of dirty fossil fuels and production of greenhouse gases.

This article assesses the expansive internationalization of China's energy role and inquires to what extent it is contributing to the export of greenhouse gases or a renewable energy future in Asia and beyond.

The New York Times has recently carried two important stories on China's coal consumption, indicating that the situation is even more serious than previously appeared to be the case. On November 3 the NYT carried a front page report that China has revised its estimates of how much coal it has been burning, and concluding that its carbon emissions have been higher than had been previously reported and assumed (“China burns much more coal than reported, complicating climate talks” (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/asia/china-burns-much-more-coal-than-reported-complicating-climate-talks.html?_r=0), Nov 3 2015). This was then widely taken up, with the emphasis invariably on the “new fact” that China's coal burning is higher than previously reported. Then on November 11 the NYT carried a second story concerning a glut of new coal-fired power plant approvals, with the implication that again carbon emissions were likely to be higher in future than previously anticipated (“Glut of coal-fired plants casts doubt on China's energy priorities” (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/world/asia/china-coal-power-energy-policy.html?_r=0), Nov 11 2015) This second story followed similar reports from both Deutsche Bank and from Greenpeace East Asia. Given the global significance of energy and emissions data from China, we explore some of the causes and implications of these developments.

Alongside its enormous “black” energy system, China is building a renewables energy system that is now the largest in the world. Following our previous articles on this topic in the Journal, we continue to report the latest trends in development of this renewables-based system, again focusing principally on the electric power system, and utilizing three sources of data from Chinese and international sources – capacity data (GW), electrical energy generation data (TWh) and investment data. We highlight that while the Chinese energy system as a whole is shifting in a green direction, at its leading edge (where new capacity is being added, and fresh electrical energy generated) it is turning green very rapidly. This provides a foundation for predicting future directions for the system as a whole, and eventual reductions in absolute carbon emissions. We note that China's increasing reliance on renewables is consistent with a concern to enhance energy security, based on the observation that renewables are products of manufacturing rather than of extractive activities.

A “global industrial rebalance” refers to a recent relocation of some energy-intensive industries from China to technologically more advanced countries. This is a reversal of the trend of several decades, which has resulted in a global concentration of energy-intensive manufacturing in China, notably steel, cement, aluminum, paper and glass. In this article, I argue that such a global industrial rebalance would benefit both China and the world. The relocation of energy-intensive production is also economically viable, as illustrated by a number of recent investments in the U.S. by Chinese firms in those industries.

As a global powerhouse in manufacturing, China now produces more steel, aluminium, glass and cement than the rest of the world combined (Fig. 1). The global concentration of energy-intensive manufacturing has been at the center of China's rapid industrialization and its positioning as the world's factory in the course of recent decades, as well as the deindustrialization that has concurrently occurred in many western countries.

Power scaling in conventional broad-area (BA) lasers often leads to the operation of higher-order lateral modes, resulting in a multiple-lobe far-field profile with large divergence. Here, we report an advanced sawtooth waveguide (ASW) structure integrated onto a wide ridge waveguide. It strategically enhances the loss difference between higher-order modes and the fundamental mode, thereby facilitating high-power narrow-beam emission. Both optical simulations and experimental results illustrate the significant increase in additional scattering loss of the higher-order modes. The optimized ASW lasers achieve an impressive output power of 1.1 W at 4.6 A at room temperature, accompanied by a minimal full width at half maximum lateral divergence angle of 4.91°. Notably, the far-field divergence is reduced from 19.61° to 11.39° at the saturation current, showcasing a remarkable 42% improvement compared to conventional BA lasers. Moreover, the current dependence of divergence has been effectively improved by 38%, further confirming the consistent and effective lateral mode control capability offered by our design.

Todorokite is a common Mn oxide (with a tunnel structure) in the Earth surface environment, and can be obtained by hydrothermal treatment or refluxing process from precursor buserite with a layered structure. Several chemical reaction conditions for the phase transformation from Na-buserite to todorokite at atmospheric pressure were investigated, including temperature, pH, crystallinity of precursor Na-buserite, the amount of the interlayer Mg2+ of the Mg-buserite and clay minerals. The results showed that the conversion rate and crystallinity of todorokite decreased with falling temperature, and Mg-buserite could not be completely transformed to todorokite at lower temperatures (40°C). The poorly crystalline Na-buserite could be converted into todorokite more easily than highly crystalline Na-buserite. Todorokite can be prepared at pH 5–9, but the rate of conversion and crystallinity of todorokite did vary with pH in the order: neutral ≈ alkali > acidic. The conversion rate of todorokite decreased with decreasing interlayer Mg2+ content of the Mg-buserite. The presence of montmorillonite or goethite slowed the formation reaction of todorokite in the refluxing process, and the reaction time was prolonged when the amounts of those minerals were increased.

In the Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals, the fall of Singapura is widely appraised as an act of divine retribution unleashed upon rulers who have committed injustice. Implicit in this theodicy is the promise of moral justice enshrined in the Bukit Siguntang covenant, which ensures mutual reciprocity between the rulers and the ruled. But a cautious approach to the narrative of Singapura's demise reveals how justice is suspended, rather than upheld, in service of power. Enabling this suspension of morality is the transformative capacity of violence. This article performs a close reading on three consecutive episodes of unjust violence inflicted on a foreigner, a child, and a concubine, respectively, prior to the sacking of Singapura by Majapahit. In scrutinising the symbolic significance of these victims as persecuted by injudicious rulers, this article posits that violence functions as a rhetorical trope in the retelling of a Malay history. As victims are made scapegoats, unjust violence brings about the fall of Singapura and, by the same token, necessitates the birth of Melaka. Violence impels the forward movement of a royal genealogy by permitting an uninterrupted sequence of reigns through a sequence of crises.

This study focuses on the role of primary care in China’s response to COVID-19. A retrospective, reflective approach was taken using data available to one of the authors who led the national community response to COVID-19, first in Wuhan and then multiple cities in ten provinces/municipalities across the country. At the peak of the pandemic, primary care providers shoulder various public health responsibilities and work in close partnerships with other key stakeholders in the local communities. Primary care providers keep playing a ‘sentinel’/surveillance role in identifying re-emerging cases after the elimination of community transmissions of COVID-19. Critically, however, the pandemic once again highlights some key limitations of the primary care sector, including the lack of gatekeeping, limited capacity and weak integration between medical care and public health.

This article proposes the design and development of a novel custom-built, autonomous scaled multiwheeled vehicle that features an eight-wheel drive and eight-wheel steer system. In addition to the mechanical and electrical design, high-level path planning and low-level vehicle control algorithms are developed and implemented including a two-stage autonomous parking algorithm is developed. A modified position-based visual servoing algorithm is proposed and developed to achieve precise pose correction. The results show significant gains in accuracy and efficiency comparing with an open-source path planner. It is the aim of this work to expand the research of autonomous platforms taking the form of commercial and off-road vehicles using actuated steering and other mechanisms attributed to passenger vehicles. The outcome of this work is a unique autonomous research platform that features independently driven wheels, steering, autonomous navigation, and parking.