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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.
David Fishman
23.4K posts
David Fishman
@pretentiouswhat
China energy analysis & advisory: solar, wind, coal, nuclear, markets.
13yr migrant, currently SH.
Rural development enthusiast.
@HopkinsNanjing
@LantauGroup
- In the Bangkok DMK airport, there are signs everywhere asking people to wear masks, but it's not aggressively enforced. 95% of travelers are wearing masks. 95% of the white people are not. Nearly every unmasked face you see is a white one.
- *Chinese and American young people having benign and mutually respectful conversations, connecting over a shared love of cats, John Denver, and six-pack abs* This guy: "Have you tried talking about sensitive and divisive political topics?"
Everyone joining Rednote (xiaohongshu) should try posting about the Uyghurs or Tiananmen just as a fun lil experiment. - How is China building SO MUCH rooftop solar, SO FAST? What kind of policy makes this possible? Do the projects even make money? If you follow the China power sector, you've probably been wondering these things. Last weekend, I went to the Shandong countryside to get answers.🧵
- "No one mentions this" because it's not relevant. Chinese landholders hold a good deal of power to hold up infrastucture projects and have, MANY times before. Indeed, national SOEs like China Railway are perhaps the MOST vulnerable to having their plans "derailed" this way.Nobody mentions why the US takes longer than China to build HSR, and the answer's simple: property rights. In the US, it takes the government a long period of purchasing, rezoning, and assisting in the moving out of people on said property, due to the rights people have over--
- 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)🧵"China", "tariffs", my business. I spent $1,000,000 over the past 14 years developing a factory in China. I married Chinese. I lived in China for seven years, and live there for three months in the summer. Tried to move the factory in 2021 to the US, impossible. Very bad.
- 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.
- In China there are now live streamers selling Shanxi 5500 kcal spot coal at 570-600 yuan/mt. Some comments on screen say "how do you ship this?" And "how many tonnes for minimum purchase?"
- Chongqing is once again all over my timeline, for the thousandth time, once again for a silly reason. But why does Chongqing seem to break statistical brains? Let's talk about it, so it becomes clearer why this place is confusing and hopefully make it easier next time.🧵
- Fun fact: the first nuclear power plant built in China had a localization rate of 1% (i.e. 1% of the components were produced in China). 30 years later, the domestic Hualong One reactor has a localization rate of over 90%, with 100% domestic control of the design IP.Replying to @BeijingDaiOn the C919, all the critical parts are made by western companies 🤣🤣🤣
- I am also pleased to report that China's best meme-making talents are rising to the occasion. This new sticker on Xiaohongshu is seeing a lot of use...
The irony of Xiaohongshu somehow getting designated as "Chinese Tiktok" instead of Douyin, which is literally, yanow, Chinese Tiktok. - At the breakfast stall this morning, I saw the base price on a crispy egg pancake wrap had been lowered from 8 CNY to 7. I asked the owner why the price cut. "Hey man, why did you lower your prices?" "I just want it to be more affordable. Everyone could use a financial break."
- Shanghai restaurants getting groceries delivered to the sidewalks outside their doors in the morning and no one touching them until the staff arrive. Can't say where else I've ever seen this...
