As President Trump talked about reviving “dying industries,” China said it plans to ax 500,000 coal and steel jobs this year.
“Dying industries will come roaring back to life,” he declared on Tuesday night.
As he was speaking, a top official thousands of miles away in Beijing was detailing China’s plans to cut half a million jobs in heavy industries this year.
That’s on top of 726,000 jobs that were axed in the coal and steel industries last year, said Yin Weimin, the country’s minister for human resources.
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It’s all part of a plan announced a year ago to shed 1.8 million coal and steel jobs over a period of years as China tries to reduce excess capacity in industries dominated by bloated and inefficient state-owned enterprises.
The government is spending billions of dollars to help redeploy workers who are affected, Yin said.
In stark contrast, Trump reckons America needs more steel and coal.
In his address, he touted a directive that new American pipelines must be made with American steel and the removal of a regulation that he claimed threatened “the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners. ”
But the big job cuts in China highlight the challenges that the coal and steel industries face worldwide.
China has been accused of selling unwanted steel on global markets for less than it costs to produce and export, throttling rivals from other countries.
