Joe McDonald

AP Business Writer

In this Sept. 27, 2021 file photo, steam billows out of the cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province. The world's facing an energy crunch.

Energy Issues Hamper Global Recovery as Winter Approaches

The biggest squeeze is on natural gas.

Steam billows out of the cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet government energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.

China's Factories, Households Grapple With Power Cuts

Economists and an environmental group say manufacturers used up this year's quota faster than planned.

A security surveillance camera is seen near the Microsoft office building in Beijing, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The Biden administration and Western allies formally blamed China on Monday for a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software and asserted that criminal hackers associated with the Chinese government have carried out ransomware and other illicit cyber operations.

China Rejects Hacking Charges, Accuses U.S. of Cyberspying

Four Chinese nationals are accused of working with the Ministry of State Security to steal U.S. trade secrets, technology and disease research.

In this Oct. 17, 2013, file photo, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, left, chats with Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Co. Ltd. General Manager Guo Liming as he inspects a nuclear reactor under construction at the nuclear power plant in Taishan, southeastern China's Guangdong province.

Hong Kong Watching Chinese Nuclear Plant After Leak Reported

Nuclear experts suggested that gas might be leaking from fuel rods inside the reactor.

In this Feb. 13, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, workers wearing masks labor at a factory for Chinese telecommunications company OPPO in Dongguan, in southern China's Guangdong Province.

Chinese Factories Face New Threat

It's U.S. anti-virus controls.

People wearing protective face masks walk by a quiet Silk Street Mall, a usually popular tourist spot before the new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

Companies Reopen in China Virus's Center

The province began allowing factories and some other businesses to reopen.

In this Monday, March 2, 2020, photo, a worker wearing a mask works at a factory producing bicycle wheel rims in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province. Factories in China that make the world's smartphones, toys and other consumer goods are trying to protect their employees from a virus outbreak as they resume production. Manufacturers are buying masks by the thousands and jugs of disinfectant. The ruling Communist Party has told local officials to help reopen factories that were idled by the most intensive anti-disease controls ever imposed.

China's Factories Try to Shield Workers

One company hired a cook and set up dorms.

A man wearing a protective face mask walks by shuttered business shops in Beijing, Sunday, March 1, 2020. Amid fears about where the next outbreak of a fast-spreading new virus would appear, infections and deaths continued to rise across the globe Sunday, emptying streets of tourists and workers, shaking economies and rewriting the realities of daily life.

China Slumps as Anti-Virus Controls Bite

Companies are confident activity will revive following government stimulus efforts.

A worker in overalls screen for fever at the entrance to a supermarket in Beijing Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020.

Chinese Industry Recovering, More Aid Coming

At a news conference, officials expressed confidence China's 18 million small and medium-size enterprises are recovering quickly.

In this Feb. 17, 2020, file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, workers assemble Audi A6 L cars at a workshop of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province.Factories that make the world's smartphones, toys and other goods are struggling to reopen after a virus outbreak idled China's economy. But even with the ruling Communist Party promising help, companies and economists say it may be months before production is back to normal.

China Struggles to Revive Manufacturing

The virus outbreak has idled China’s economy.

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Automakers Gradually Reopen

The plants were idled by anti-virus controls.

In this Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, photo, workers watch a container ship arrive at a port in Qingdao in east China's Shandong province.

China Cuts Tariffs on $75B of US Imports

The cuts follow last month's signing of a “Phase 1” agreement.