Millions of jobs at risk in Xi's rustbelt revamp

Beijing

THE black rock of Shanxi province fuelled China's industrial revolution, helping forge the steel that built railways, apartment blocks, office towers and factories across the nation and feeding the electricity plants that power them.

Now, as the Communist Party looks to a new model of growth more reliant on consumers, services and innovation, the landlocked province hosting some of the biggest coalfields the world has ever seen is hitting hard times. Beijing has ordered 500 million tonnes - or about 9 per cent of China's annual coal capacity - to close by 2020 in what could be just the first stage in a decades-long industrial restructuring that will be felt here in Shanxi most sharply.