China has so many electric cars that a wave of worn-out lithium batteries is coming, and most of them are not expected to last much beyond eight years. Recycling them is hard to make profitable because China's dominant lithium iron phosphate batteries hold far less recoverable metal than the cobalt and nickel batteries used elsewhere. Legitimate recyclers struggle to compete with informal workshops that skip costly safe processing and pay more for old batteries. China's past experience with appliance recycling showed how subsidies can backfire: the fund was owed nearly CNY 20 billion by the end of 2022, and money went to buying more appliances rather than upgrading equipment. The alternative is a rule requiring batteries to contain recycled material, which the EU adopted in 2023.

The Edo period ran from the early 1600s to 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan and around 300 regional daimyo, or feudal lords, governed their domains. After Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the shogunate ended the chaos of the Sengoku period and kept the country largely at peace. The regime enforced a strict social order, required the daimyo to spend time in the capital, and pursued isolationist foreign policy. Meanwhile, towns grew, the economy expanded and popular arts such as woodblock prints, theatre and literature flourished among ordinary townspeople.