Senator O recently told us how much he admired China's infrastructure -- based on those TV pics during the Olympics. But The Daily Telegraph (UK) reports a different picture, according to our blog colleagues at EUREFERENDUM.

"... The Daily Telegraph  is reporting that China's industrial heartland is facing crippling power shortages, with more than a dozen provinces already rationing electricity. The country is suffering from its biggest power crisis since 2004, when a 40-gigawatt shortfall left three quarters of China in the dark.

The proximate cause is a shortage of coal  ... More to the point, the actual cause is a highly regulated internal market which caps the prices of coal and electricity, making it difficult for companies to invest in new capacity - on top of a creaking infrastructure, leaving a shortage of rail transport to deliver coal where it is needed.

Anyhow, so serious has the situation become in China now that, in order to keep the lights burning in Peking, and the television cameras rolling, that other areas are being starved of power."