Throughout his term, President Joe Biden’s administration has actively worked to curtail domestic energy production, forcing American reliance on foreign energy. China, in particular, stands to benefit from a global green revolution.
Under the traditional model of fossil fuel–based energy production, the United States is one of the largest energy producers in the world. By comparison, China is the world’s largest energy importer. To gain a competitive advantage, China has worked to change the terms of the industry. For years, the CCP has encouraged a global transition to renewable energy — a transition that will turn nations into clients of Chinese industry.
Biden’s energy regulations require a transition to Chinese-manufactured infrastructure, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries for electric vehicles. Biden, like Barack Obama before him, has failed to recognize the dangers of forced reliance on China’s “green” energy materials, even amid growing tensions between the U.S. and the PRC.
China’s dominance in green energy materials is no accident. In the recently published paper “Chinese Handcuffs: How China Exploits America’s Climate Agenda,” Heritage Foundation scholars Erin Walsh and Andrew J. Harding explain the recent history of Chinese energy policy, illuminating the decades-long project of establishing dominance in components needed to produce renewable energy.
While the American environmentalist movement gained momentum in the mid-20th century, Chairman Deng Xiaoping sought to attract foreign investment in China through his “open door” policy. Throughout the 1990s, trade and investment reforms brought new foreign investment to China, dramatically increasing the nation’s demand for energy. As Walsh and Harding explain, “The high energy demands of China’s industrial economy left it increasingly reliant on imported fossil-based energy, which left the country vulnerable to both supply and price fluctuations.”
To increase energy security, General Secretary Hu Jintao began building China’s capacity for renewable energy. Communist Party spokesmen touted China’s climate commitments at international gatherings, working to advance the nation’s interests through global climate diplomacy.
Building off Hu’s legacy, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping continues to pursue Chinese energy independence and works to “mold[] the global climate order to serve the interests of the CCP.” With legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act — which didn’t so much reduce inflation as slash America’s domestic energy industry — Biden and the Democrats are playing into Xi’s hands.
As Biden administration officials dream about transforming America into a “fossil fuel free” nation, China stands to profit from such a transition. Xi has overseen Chinese growth in the green energy sector, and China has invested heavily in building the capacity to manufacture solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, and electric vehicles (EVs).
As the world’s foremost producer of solar panels, China controls 80 percent of the solar supply chain. The nation also dominates in lithium-ion battery production, supplying 80 percent of the world’s battery cells. And, perhaps even more concerning, China is the largest producer of rare earth elements used in defense systems and platforms worldwide.
China manufactures the materials needed to reconfigure America’s energy infrastructure as Biden’s administration desires, but the CCP also commits human rights abuses left and right. Increasing American reliance on Chinese products — and supply chains controlled largely by China — strengthens the CCP and weakens the United States.
The disastrous effects of American reliance on China have been illustrated in recent years after Congress implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prevents the importation of goods produced in the Xinjiang province unless it can be proved that the materials were not produced by slave labor. According to Reuters, following the implementation of this act, solar energy components began “pil[ing] up at U.S. ports,” threatening to slow “the Biden administration’s efforts to decarbonize the U.S. power sector to fight climate change.” As it turns out, Chinese solar panels are cheaper than those made elsewhere — in part because a number of Chinese companies rely on Uyghur laborers who work under threat of reeducation and internment.
As Sen. Marco Rubio wrote Thursday in the American Conservative:
China is also trying to flood the U.S. economy with cheap solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, wind turbines, steel, aluminum, textiles, and more….
Beijing’s goal in all this isn’t to turn a profit; it’s to create and reinforce dependencies. That spells trouble for the United States, because dependence on Chinese goods gives power to our chief geopolitical adversary.
Given America’s significant entanglement with the Chinese economy, regaining U.S. independence is easier said than done. But ending American reliance on Chinese-made solar panels and EVs would be a good place to start. The transition away from fossil fuels isn’t helping Americans — just ask oil and gas producers or auto workers. Instead, Biden is sacrificing America’s national interest for cheap imports and China’s profit.
