纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英What Chinas EV City Says About the State of the Economy
January 29, 2024 2 min 285 words
这篇报道揭示了中国电动汽车城的独特现象，不仅是经济繁荣的体现，更是中国迈向绿色未来的象征。报道中强调了中国对电动汽车产业的巨大投资和支持，以及在该城市崛起的一系列电动汽车制造商。这反映了中国政府对可持续发展和创新的承诺。然而，也应审慎看待，关注产业可持续性和市场激励机制，以免过度依赖政府支持。这一现象不仅仅是关于汽车产业，更是中国经济结构调整的一部分，体现了中国对未来发展方向的明确规划。这一举措对于环境保护和新能源发展具有积极意义，但也需要在市场自主性和竞争中找到平衡点。
Ultramodern factories churn out electric cars and solar panels in Hefei, an industrial center in the heart of central China. Broad avenues link office towers and landscaped parks. Subway lines open at a brisk pace.
Yet at Hefei’s market for construction materials, which fills 10 city blocks, local merchants are gloomy. Wu Junlin, a vendor of doors, has closed two of his three stores and laid off all but one of his dozen employees.
“I have been doing this for 20 years — after all these years, this year is the worst,” he said, sitting in his last store with no customers in sight.
Nowhere better showcases the opportunities and vulnerabilities of China’s economy than Hefei.
Government-directed growth in industries like electric vehicles and solar panels has turned China into the world’s export superpower, making Hefei a model for other Chinese cities. But a nationwide decline in real estate has devastated the finances of millions of families and small businesses — including in Hefei.
Hefei and nearby towns have become an E.V. manufacturing hub, with overall car production nearly tripling since 2019 and now exceeding Michigan’s. Hefei’s industrial policies have been so successful in nurturing technology manufacturers that the country’s central government has embraced tenets of what is known as the Hefei model.
Now so many cities are subsidizing electric vehicle factories that the industry faces severe overcapacity and heavy losses.
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