The first unit of China's Maerdang Hydropower Station, the highest-altitude facility of its kind with the largest installed capacity in the Yellow River basin, saw the successful hoisting of its generator rotor into position, paving the way for the entire station to be operational by the end of the year.
The giant rotor, with a total weight of 270 tons, is the core component of the water-turbine generator set. The rotor hoisting, demanding precision and skill, took 40 minutes to complete and is a key step in the unit's installation.
Located at an average altitude of 3,300 meters in northwest China's Qinghai Province, the Maerdang Hydropower Station has a total installed capacity of 2.32 million kilowatts and five hydropower generating units, which makes it a major power provider in the "west-to-east power transmission" project.
With all units put into use in December, the station is expected to generate an average of 7.3 billion kWh of electricity annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 8.16 million tons each year.
The construction marks a milestone in Qinghai's new energy development and will facilitate the establishment of more clean energy bases in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
China's high-altitude hydropower station unit enters final assembly stage
The universal "reciprocal tariffs" imposed by the United States signals a decline in the U.S. economic dominance and dollar hegemony, as the country is attempting to extract excessive financial benefits from its trading partners, according to economists, who warn the Trump administration is playing a "dangerous game".
U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order on the so-called "reciprocal tariffs," imposing a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" before unveiling higher rates on certain trading partners. The policy sent shockwaves throughout the global economy and triggered panic on financial markets, with analysts warning of significant risks and dire economic consequences.
In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN), Hong Hao, chief economist of the GROW Investment Group, a Shanghai-based hedge fund, said the tariffs reflect Trump's strategy to extract economic benefits from trading partners, particularly viewing China as a significant competitor. "Trump really believes that the trade terms with the trading partners have been unfair to the U.S., and as a result, the U.S. manufacturing sector has been hollowed out. Therefore, the U.S. is paying an excessive price for globalization, and now, it's time to pay back. I think, from this angle, he is trying to extract economic rent from its trading partners, and also he is trying to see China as one of the major U.S. rivals at this juncture. So, I think, as a result, he is playing a very dangerous game. And, as you can see, it's political theater in the sense that he is trying to dramatize the extreme pressure, so that he can get excessive rent from the opponent," he said
Trump's unilateral imposition of tariffs has eroded global confidence in the U.S. and its dollar's status, leading many to state that the American hegemony may not persist, according to Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University.
"The U.S. economy is at an inflection point. There is a moment where the previous strategies being used to sustain American hegemony were no longer working. And, it's only a matter of time before the U.S. position erodes, given the fact that it's been a house of cards built on the dollar supremacy. And a lot of people don't see that as having a brighter future. This has moved past the theater stage and has moved really directly into one in which no one really has confidence in the U.S. anymore. No one has confidence in the dollar. No one has confidence in the U.S. being committed to the multilateral system, to global trade and so forth and so on," he said.
Trump playing "dangerous game" as tariff measures signal decline in U.S. dollar hegemony: economists
