Almost a decade after China began curbing coal burning to stop thick winter smog, villagers in northern Hebei Province are struggling to afford their heating bills with most gas subsidies now phased out.
In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favor of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
Beijing allocated funds to refit stoves, but subsidies faded after three years, and additional aid has drastically declined, local media reported this week.
Photo: AFP
In Xushui, a district in Hebei about 100km outside Beijing, villagers said that they avoided turning on the heating, because it drained their incomes.
“Regular folks can’t afford it... Spending 1,000 yuan [US$143] per month on heat — no one can stand that,” a resident in his 60s said at a farmers’ market.
“Everyone likes that [the air] is clean. There’s not one person that doesn’t like it,” he said, asking not to be named for fear of “trouble.”
“But... the cost of clean [air] is high,” he added.
On the clear, sunny day Agence France-Presse visited, the warmest temperature in the district was just under 6°C, with lows of minus-7°C.
Restaurant worker Yin Chunlan said that her elderly in-laws need to pay up to 7,000 yuan per year to heat their six-room village home.
Yin, 48, lives in an apartment in town and says her annual bill is one-third of that.
“But it’s not the same in the village,” she said. “They have to set their heating much higher, and the temperature still isn’t as warm, so it wastes gas and wastes money.”
Yin’s in-laws often pile on extra blankets to stay warm.
“When I see it, it’s quite pitiful,” said Yin, wiping away a tear. “Nothing can be done.”
In one village, a woman in her 70s wore a green padded jacket underneath an apron as she crossed her outdoor courtyard.
Heating in her home is not turned on during the daytime, she said, showing the system’s switchboard mounted above her stove displaying “off.”
The woman, who did not give her name, said the dial could reach 60°C. When asked if the temperature inside could feel as warm, she laughed.
Reports that villagers in Hebei were layering up under quilts to avoid costly heating peppered Chinese social media in the first week of the new year.
An article by the Farmers’ Daily reshared in state media China Central Television ‘s (CCTV) opinion section said in rural Hebei natural gas costs up to 3.4 yuan per cubic meter compared with 2.6 yuan in rural areas of Beijing.
Villagers said they felt the huge price gap was unfair.
However, the original article was quickly taken down, with republications, including the CCTV article, inaccessible days later.
The Chinese Ministry of Finance said in 2021 a total of 13.2 billion yuan in funds had been distributed for clean heating across Hebei.
However, subsidies to support the installation of new systems and for gas bills, which had lasted three years, would not be renewed, it said in a letter.
The move came around the same time that international gas prices were driven up by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last year, Chinese authorities reported national gas consumption growth had slowed.
The Chinese ministry, responding to a local proposal to increase financial support for provincial pollution control, said special funds would be arranged for additional subsidies in rural areas, but gave no details of the rollout.
A local Xushui government platform said in 2017 that some households would be eligible to receive 300 yuan in gas subsidies.
For villager Zhang Yanjun, that amount hardly made a dent in his bill of several thousand yuan per season.
The 55-year-old laborer said he had already spent more than 5,000 yuan on heating his home since October last year.
“If you give 300 or 200 yuan or something, it’s the same as if you gave no subsidies at all,” he said.
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