Forced Gas Heating Leaves Villagers Freezing to Death

Authorities are ignoring the lives of farmers in Hebei, compelling them to switch to natural gas for heating. (People News/AI-generated image)

[People News] Since winter began, the issue of "farmers unable to afford heating" in Hebei has become a frequent topic on Chinese social media. Many netizens have voiced their frustration, stating that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is forcing ordinary people to switch to expensive natural gas, turning winter heating into an insurmountable challenge for many farmers. Many are suffering and angrily asking: Are we not allowed to live?

The CCP authorities, claiming to improve air quality in Beijing, have mandated the use of natural gas or electric heating in regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Shandong since 2017. They have strictly prohibited farmers from burning coal, firewood, or charcoal, resulting in a dramatic rise in winter heating costs that many cannot bear. As a result, numerous farmers would rather endure the cold than risk using natural gas for heating.

According to a report by the Farmers' Daily, the price of natural gas in rural Hebei has soared to 3.4 yuan per cubic meter, surpassing the 2.6 yuan charged in the areas surrounding Beijing. However, this article has been ordered to be removed by the authorities.

Farmers have historically earned less than urban residents, making their lives challenging. Now, the authorities are selling natural gas to farmers at exorbitant prices, which is utterly unreasonable and reflects a blatant disregard for farmers as second-class citizens.

Many netizens have reported that using gas is prohibitively expensive, costing over three times what it used to cost to burn coal, and the heating is not as effective as burning firewood. Furthermore, there are frequent gas outages, and the equipment often malfunctions with no management in place.

A blogger shared their calculations: 'When I was a child, we would spend over a thousand yuan on coal for the entire winter. We would burn the stove and heat the kang every day, keeping our home warm and cosy without any worries throughout the season. Now, with natural gas, heating costs have skyrocketed. For a 100 square meter house, if you want to maintain a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, you need about 20 cubic meters of gas each day. In most rural areas of Hebei, the cost is 3.15 yuan per cubic meter, which adds up to over 60 yuan daily, totalling nearly 2,000 yuan a month. If you want it to be even warmer, you could easily spend 3,000 yuan a month. By the end of winter, the total could exceed 10,000 yuan. However, the average income for rural residents in Hebei is just over 20,000 yuan, meaning that heating costs consume more than half of their income. How can ordinary people manage under these circumstances? The monthly pension for the elderly is only about 100 to 200 yuan, which is insufficient to cover heating expenses, forcing them to bundle up in thick cotton clothing and huddle at the kang to endure the cold.'

Some netizens who are unaware of the situation might suggest, 'If natural gas is too expensive, just burn coal or charcoal secretly.' However, anyone who has witnessed the brutal tactics employed by grassroots officials of the Communist Party against families with more than one child during the thirty-plus years of the one-child policy would not make such comments. Those family planning officials, in collaboration with local police, would ambush, surround, and chase down families that exceeded the birth limit, often resorting to tactics like smashing homes and seizing livestock.

The Chinese Communist authorities are well aware that the high cost of natural gas poses a significant burden for impoverished farmers, leading many households to refuse its use and resort to burning coal and charcoal in secret. In response, local governments have implemented coercive measures reminiscent of the one-child policy. Officials are personally leading teams to conduct door-to-door inspections, destroying farmers' coal stoves, and confiscating honeycomb coal, dry firewood, and charcoal without any compassion, even in the face of elderly farmers' desperate pleas. Additionally, the authorities have deployed drones for continuous surveillance, both day and night, to monitor which households are burning fires and which chimneys are emitting smoke, resulting in fines ranging from 500 to 2000 yuan. 

The Chinese Communist Party operates as a dictatorial regime that allows no room for retreat in its actions, pursuing a policy of total eradication and punishing entire families for the actions of a single individual. The principle of 'one person having an extra child leads to the sterilisation of the entire village' has been applied to the enforcement of natural gas usage. To deter the public from secretly burning coal, they encourage neighbours to report on one another, offering rewards for informants, thereby inciting animosity among villagers and tempting individuals to forsake their last vestiges of kindness for minor rewards, unleashing their inner coldness and malice. In summary, this is a one-size-fits-all approach; even if it results in bloodshed, the dictatorial government will not tolerate any disobedience to its orders.

According to reports from The Epoch Times, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has imposed a ban on farmers burning coal and firewood at all levels of government, using various coercive measures. For instance, with the exception of power plants and certain special industries, all coal transport vehicles are strictly prohibited from entering Hebei Province. This includes national highways, provincial roads, and county roads, effectively preventing coal from reaching rural areas. Some individuals selling coal have been detained, while others who purchased coal had it forcibly confiscated by the government, causing farmers to be too fearful to buy coal, and ultimately, they found themselves unable to purchase it at all, thereby forcing them to rely on gas for heating.

A netizen shared a video indicating that in a village with over 100 households, fewer than 10 families are using gas for heating. As a result, everyone is enduring the harsh winter nights. He previously posted a video mentioning that many elderly left-behind individuals could not withstand the cold and had died, but within 10 minutes of posting, he received a threatening call demanding that he delete the video.

Another netizen adapted a song to express the genuine suffering caused by the authorities' enforcement of gas heating. The lyrics convey: "The costs are so high that I can't even lift my head; even when the temperature reaches fifty or sixty degrees, it’s still not as warm as before. Don’t be deceived by the warmth inside; I still have to pay over a thousand each month. We truly cannot afford gas; it leaves us feeling down all day. A winter costs several thousand; who can afford it..."

A netizen disclosed that recently, three family members—a grandfather and his two grandchildren—froze to death in Chicheng County, Hebei. (Screenshot from X platform)

On January 6, an image circulated online showing a message written in both Chinese and English on the back of a door, stating: "Yesterday, three people froze to death in Chicheng County: a grandfather and his two grandchildren, aged 7 and 4. The government has completely suppressed the news. I truly hope China becomes a state of the United States; it would be better than the current situation."

Chicheng County is part of Zhangjiakou City in northern Hebei, located close to Chongli, the site of the Winter Olympics. As we enter the 'Sanjiao' solar term, temperatures in Chongli have plummeted to between minus 14 and minus 30 degrees Celsius, and Chicheng County is experiencing similar lows.

A particularly striking phrase in a recent slogan reads: 'I really hope China becomes a state of the United States; it would be better than the current situation.' This suggests that some individuals are awakening to the reality that as long as the Communist Party remains in power, the Chinese people will struggle to live well. Only by dismantling the Communist Party can they hope to escape from disaster.

In 2020, former Premier Li Keqiang highlighted that at least 600 million people in China earn an average monthly income of around 1,000 yuan, making it challenging to cover even basic rent in medium-sized cities. Rural residents face even lower incomes and harsher living conditions. The monthly pension for the elderly is just over 100 yuan, leaving them unable to afford enough food, let alone extra funds for gas heating. They are left to endure the long, cold nights with their frail bodies. If these 600 million people come to recognise the Communist Party's malevolence due to their inability to afford natural gas, and rise up against it or declare their withdrawal from this evil organisation, the Communist Party could be dismantled in just a few days.

(First published in People News) △