Energy in China: Development and Prospects

Since 1978, China’s rapid economic development has brought about a growing demand for energy. The Chinese government has introduced a number of reform policies to attract investment, including foreign exchange reform, pricing reform, legal reform, and enterprise reform. To further improve the performance of the energy industries, the government has embarked on several programmes of industry restructuring in recent years. These programmes will have significant effects on the energy sector in the coming decades. This article reviews critical issues that pertain to the development of China’s energy sector and assesses the sector’s future

Faiblesses et perspectives du secteur énergétique chinois

Depuis 1978, le développement économique rapide de la Chine s’est traduit par une demande croissante d’énergie. Le gouvernement a mis en œuvre plusieurs types de mesures pour attirer les investissements étrangers dans le secteur, touchant au régime des changes, à la fixation des prix, au cadre juridique, à la gestion des entreprises. Ces dernières années, plusieurs programmes visant à restructurer le secteur ont été lancés ; ils auront un impact significatif dans les décennies à venir. Cet article examine les faiblesses caractéristiques du développement énergétique chinois et évalue ses perspectives

The photometric observation of the quasi-simultaneous mutual eclipse and occultation between Europa and Ganymede on 22 August 2021

Mutual events (MEs) are eclipses and occultations among planetary natural satellites. Most of the time, eclipses and occultations occur separately. However, the same satellite pair will exhibit an eclipse and an occultation quasi-simultaneously under particular orbital configurations. This kind of rare event is termed as a quasi-simultaneous mutual event (QSME). During the 2021 campaign of mutual events of jovian satellites, we observed a QSME between Europa and Ganymede. The present study aims to describe and study the event in detail. We observed the QSME with a CCD camera attached to a 300-mm telescope at the Hong Kong Space Museum Sai Kung iObservatory. We obtained the combined flux of Europa and Ganymede from aperture photometry. A geometric model was developed to explain the light curve observed. Our results are compared with theoretical predictions (O-C). We found that our simple geometric model can explain the QSME fairly accurately, and the QSME light curve is a superposition of the light curves of an eclipse and an occultation. Notably, the observed flux drops are within 2.6% of the theoretical predictions. The size of the event central time O-Cs ranges from -14.4 to 43.2 s. Both O-Cs of flux drop and timing are comparable to other studies adopting more complicated models. Given the event rarity, model simplicity and accuracy, we encourage more observations and analysis on QSMEs to improve Solar System ephemerides.Comment: 23 pages, 5 appendixes, 16 figures, 7 table

Dominance in Hong Kong's Gas Industry

Competition, regulation, gas industry, common carrier,

Transition to competition in Hong Kong's local telephone industry

The local telephone industry in Hong Kong has been expanding rapidly since the 1970s. Technology in the industry has advanced greatly and the Industry itself has undergone several regulatory reforms. The industry has moved from rate-of-return regulation to price-cap regulation, and is now moving to yet another regulatory system. Franchised oligopoly is replacing the old system of franchised monopoly in the local telephone industry. This paper describes the evolution of the local telephone industry in Hong Kong. Our focus is on the regulatory environment of the industry. The industry has been subject to a special form of rate-of-return regulation, called the Scheme of Control. Features of the Scheme of Control and its effect are discussed. Several regulatory issues arising in the transition of the industry to a new competitive structure are outlined, based on the experiences of the USA and UK markets.