CarrZee asks: Are power markets being used as a geopolitical weapon?

In Europe, it’s natural gas — fossil fuels. So Asia might be blazing some weird trail here.

TAIPEI, March 3 (Reuters reports) – Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen bestowed a presidential honour on former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday for his contribution to boosting relations with the island, as China’s government lambasted his record as “despicable”.

From the BBC:

Major cities across Taiwan including the capital Taipei have seen widespread power failures after a reported accident at a power plant.

The nation’s economic affairs minister, Wang Meihua, said an accident had occurred at a power plant in southern Taiwan, according to a report by state-linked Central News Agency.

The ministry would deal with the matter “urgently”, she added.

The outage affected some five million households in Taiwan, she said.

…

Taiwan-based TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, said a number of its plants had experienced short “power dips”. It added that it was checking if there was any “actual impact”, said a Reuters report.