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David Fishman Profile picture
@pretentiouswhat
Jun 20, 2021 • 18 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
Hi! I often tweet long threads about China's energy sector, mostly grid, renewables, and nuclear.

This is a master collection of my favorites, from oldest to newest.

I will add more as they are created and remove oudated ones.
1. The messy recent history of China's nuclear power industry:

2. A summary of China's regional power grids and dispatch model:

3. A discussion of China's renewable power subsidies and tariff structure:

4. A pretty nerdy and niche summary of how engineers design nuclear power plants to be safe from airplane strikes.

5. An introduction to China's UHV transmission network:

6. China's power shortages in December 2020: Translation of Caixin article + commentary.

7. A short thread about barriers to increased Chinese RE investment in BRI:

(was hoping to expand on this, but my project's funding was yanked and I started doing other things).

8. Everything you wanted to know about nuclear waste:

9. A short thread about the competitiveness of Chinese nuclear exports:

10. Helping out a confused man who didn't know much about nuclear power or China:

(got myself blocked for my efforts)
11. A thead about pumped hydropower storage in China:

12. A history of renewable energy Feed-in-Tariffs in China.

13. Why the Fukushima wastewater release really isn't that big of a deal:

14. Commentary on new RE consumption quotas for Chinese provinces in 2021:

15. A commentary on the Taishan radioactivity release alarmism:

16. Translation/commentary of the subsequent NNSA press release re: Taishan

17. A commentary on Guangdong's new direct power purchase rules for Renewable Energy - important for corporates.

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More from @pretentiouswhat

David Fishman Profile picture
May 1
The social commentary on China in this thread is ~90% wrong.

I rarely wade into cultural affairs, but this was too egregious (and was seen by too many people) to just ignore.

Long thread...(sorry in advance)🧵
"The Chinese want to get rich. All of them."

No. Some Chinese want to get rich. Some want to make art, or start a climate NGO, or be in a rock band, or help rural farmers sell honey, or join the navy. They want to improve themselves, provide a better life for their children and take care of their aging parents. They could be motivated by personal dreams and ambitions, familial or social obligations, nationalism, a virtous desire to "do good", or a hundred other things besides "wanting to get rich". Just like everyone else on the planet. It's irresponsible misrepresentation to talk like this.

The pure accumulation of material wealth to sustain certain lifestyle was a more prevalent motivator in decades past, when the society was at a lower rung on Maslow's ladder, but the times have changed.

"Their work ethic is correlated with their desire to succeed. This is a primary threat to anyone competing with them."

They do this not because they're Chinese, but because they're human, and that's what humans striving to win in success-limited conditions do. Making out this out to be some kind of Chinese cultural trait is just orientalism.

"I harnessed it and improved the lives of many"

This comes across as some kind of savior complex. OP employed Chinese people in factories to make goods that he sold for profit. He brags in the replies to his thread that he made good money doing this. Apparently that means he "harnessed" their work ethic to improve their lives. I hope he doesn't pull any muscles, straining so hard to pat himself on the back.Image
"The Chinese want to be taken seriously, and they want to take over the world. Literally."

Yes very much on on the first part. But the second part about "China wants to take over the world" is unsupported nonsense. I wonder what exactly OP thinks "literally" means? And how he would back up this claim?

"They want to prove how great they are and how everyone else is inferior and wrong"

This is quite wrong. Sure, Chinese people want respect, and to be recognized for their strengths. Once again, that's not particularly *Chinese* so much as it's human. Issues only really arise when that respect is not given, or the recognition is withheld, which is also a pretty universal cultural reaction.

China has strong affinity for the wisdom of "different strokes for different folks", and easily accepts that what makes sense for China doesn't necessarily make sense for other places and vice versa. The most common attitude towards cultural differences is not that they arise due to inferiority or wrongness, but because of different primary conditions between Chinese and non-Chinese people.

Thus, the instinct to evangelize a Chinese way of thinking or acting to non-Chinese peoples is pretty weak. By contrast, Western expats are often afflicted with a strong desire to evangelize their ways of thinking and doing things, and subsequently get frustrated when they find limited receptivity. A common and unfortunate outcome is they process this frustration as "Chinese believe everyone else is inferior and wrong".

"Nationalism is very strong. They may disagree with Xi, but criticism (sic) him and see the reaction"

Nationalism IS strong and growing. After all, there's continually more to be proud about. But this logic is erroneous. Chinese people are rational opinion-having actors, not Pavlovian hamsters, and linking pride in being Chinese to having a negative reaction to criticism of Xi is a non sequitur.

Like any human responding to the opinions of others, if you make a criticism they agree with, you'll get a positive response, and if you criticize something they don't agree with, you'll get a negative reaction. That's how humans with beliefs defend their beliefs - not an exclusively Chinese trait.Image
Read 13 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Apr 27
Last week, I presented orally at a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Comission on China's efforts in the clean energy transition, focusing on industrial electrification.

Testimony and recording in link. This is a summary thread. 🧵

uscc.gov/hearings/china…
China has already achieved dominance of the current "big three" pillars of cleantech: solar PV, batteries, and EVs.

To these, add wind turbines and ultra high-voltage transmission, and China's 2030 carbon emissions peaking target seems quite assured.

But what then?
Yes, the emissions peak is mathematically inevitable, with both coal consumption and petroleum consumption having already peaked, or about to peak, depending on to whom you speak. But what must happen post-2030 to ensure the peak turns into a decline, and not just a plateau?
Read 17 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Apr 25
Broadly speaking, the USA's China strategy as informed by guys who did a stint in the country 15-20 years ago has been so ineffective and incoherent that it's quite likely you could get sharper China policy and advisory from people who have never been here at all.
IMO, being an expat in China 15 yrs ago grants NEGATIVE effectiveness as a source of insight for policymaking/advisory in 2025.

Similar to HK or TW expats, their knowledge is worse than ignorance. They actively misinform, usually to the detriment of their OWN objectives.
It's not impossible to do better, and policymakers must do so to survive. Where do you imagine the fantasy that China would fold under tariff pressure because of its export reliance came from?

Some "used to be in China" expert, is my guess.🤨

Read 8 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Apr 19
China Taxicab Chronicles: Mrs. Mi Will Buy a House in Kashgar

I'm heading to a meeting in Pudong. Mrs. Mi picks me up in a new GAC Aion Y and confirms my phone number.

Her accent sounds like me in Chinese class 15 years ago. Mandarin is clearly not her first language. 🧵
"You...you're not Chinese, right?" she asks.
"No, I'm American. Do I look Chinese?"

"You look Arabic, or from Afghanistan. But you sound Chinese"
"I've been here a long time"

"How long?"
"13 years"

"Oh, longer than me"
"How long have you been in Shanghai?"

"Over one year"
"Ah, welcome to Shanghai. I can hear your accent...you're from Xinjiang right? What part?"
"Yes. I'm from Kashgar"

"Oh, Southern Xinjiang. I have friends from Korla and Yili, but I don't know anyone from that far south."
"Yes, that's Northern Xinjiang. Different from us."
Read 13 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Apr 6
While everyone was busy freaking out about the Trump tariffs, China released a new list of its major low-carbon demo projects for 2025

This is Batch 2 - the first batch was announced last year.

All of them are important and ground-breaking projects...101 of them in total.🧵 Image
Remember, the title of National Demonstration Project is a powerful designation with many practical benefits to project owners, including direct financial and fiscal support, policy and approval advantages, increased access to technology and talent resources, prioritization in government procurement events, and long-term institutional backing from local authorities (for example, being written into the province's five-year plan).

This list of projects is basically a direct summary of what national energy stakeholders think are the most important cutting-edge items in furthering the national low-carbon energy agenda, and a promise to support those projects to achieve success.Image
I won't go through the entire list one-by-one...that would be way too long, but I did review the list so I could provide some high-level summary of the types of projects on the list, and pick out some that I thought were particularly notable.

This is a longish and text-heavy thread, so it definitely won't be for everyone. But if you want to get an early view on what's happening on the cutting edge of China's energy transition tech, and not be shocked when they make some big announcement in a year or two, then this is the thread for you.

I'll provide link at the end of the thread for both Batch 1 and 2, of course, so you can review on your own. Okay, let's go.
Read 18 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Mar 31
When they teach about the rise of China in textbooks someday, I hope there's at least a section about how USA institutions psy-opped themselves into utter helplessness by meticulously sourcing all their primary insights from copium vendors. This could be a thesis.
No need to actually write the thesis yourself though; DeepSeek's got it covered.

"Institutionalized Copium Networks" I'm gonna borrow that one for the future. Image
This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. These are exactly the narratives that people, want, need to believe are meaningful, so they can make themselves believe Everything is Fine.

Freedom and lack of corruption is the USA's secret sauce? Oh buddy... Image
Read 4 tweets

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