A Shadow Falls Over Chinese Solar Investments in the U. S. - The Wire China
Good evening. For no reason in particular, let’s think of America and China’s geopolitical competition as a game of two 250-year halves. Thanks to its best players, Washington, Lincoln and FDR, Team USA. . .
Good evening. For no reason in particular, let’s think of America and China’s geopolitical competition as a game of two 250-year halves. Thanks to its best players, Washington, Lincoln and FDR, Team USA dominated most of the first half and had a comfortable 4-0 lead as the halftime whistle neared. Subbing off the Qing dynasty was a wise tactical move by China, but even then it took a while before its players stopped fighting among themselves. The game’s momentum finally turned when China’s two midfield generals, Deng and Xi, got two goals back in quick succession just before the first half ended. Should China get the first goal of the second half, it will be 4-3 with a lot of time still on the clock. And the U. S. will not be helped by its controversial assistant coach, Don Trump, who took charge after Head Coach Joe Biden lashed out at the ref and got a red card that he has only himself to blame for. Trump is adored by half of his players but hated by the rest, undermining their on-field cohesion. In this week’s issue,The Wire Chinaexamines three critical areas of Sino-U. S. competition that will help determine the outcome of the Game of the Millennium:solar energy,electric vehiclesandsemiconductors. May the best team win!Rows of solar panels on the roof of a building in North Andover, MA, November 30, 2017. Credit: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe viaGetty ImagesEclipsedThe U. S. pioneered the technologies that made solar energy feasible but couldn’t muster — across the Obama, Biden and two Trump administrations — the policy consistency necessary to lead the industry. So China said thank you very much, built huge overcapacities, drove down costs, and appeared poised to make large investments in U. S. solar projects. But in a rare instance of the Biden and Trump administrations agreeing on something, neither thought this was a good idea. Savannah Billman looks atChina’s subsequent retreat from the American solar industry. Other items in this week’s issue: A letter fromXiaomi HQ; doth Nvidiaprotesttoo much?; theChina-EU tipping point; the CFR’sBenn Steilon the fall of the WTO and the rise of CIPS; and Ann Listerud on the Communist Party’s contingency plans for a possibleChinese financial crisis. Want this emailed directly to your inbox?Sign up to receive our free newsletter. A deconstructed Xiaomi SU7 displayed at the Auto China in Beijing, China, April 24, 2026. Credit: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg viaGetty ImagesAmerica’s EV ReckoningThe acronym ICE stands for two of Donald Trump’s most favorite things, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the internal combustion engine. Upon returning to the White House, Trump binned the Biden administration’s plans to support electric vehicles. China, meanwhile, went all-in on EVs and in doing so transformed the global automotive industry. Joshua Busby, a Biden-era Pentagon climate change adviser, recently visitedXiaomi’s new EV factory in Beijingto see just how big China’s lead has become. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speak in the Cross Hall of the White House before an event on “Investing in America”, April 30, 2025. Credit: Andrew Harnik viaGetty ImagesThe Company That Cried HuaweiNoah Berman lifts the lid on the tactics Nvidia used to argue that it should be allowed to sell its advanced semiconductor chips to China. In a report viewed byThe Wire, which Nvidia presented to the U. S. government last year, the company argued that if it was not allowed to do so, its Chinese rival Huawei would have the “flexibility to satisfy global AI chip demand” and could soon dominate the global industry. Noah’s scoop is also the subject of the latestWire Chinapodcast. Chinese President Xi Jinping, fourth left, listens to European Council President António Costa, second right, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, third right, during the opening remarks of the European Union-China Summit in Beijing, China, July 24, 2025. Credit: Andres Martinez Casares /Pool Photo viaAP ImagesTrade as War by Other MeansThe causation chain is not hard to follow. China’s manufactured and industrial goods surplus with the U. S. and EU goes up. The number of U. S. and EU manufacturing and industrial jobs go down. The number of votes for Trump or his European far-right imitators goes up. In The Big Picture, Savannah Billman maps the increasingly one-way trade autobahn between China and the EU. A Q&A with Benn SteilBenn Steil is director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations and the author of three books on the intersection of money, markets and geopolitics. He speaks with Addis Goldmanabout how China overwhelmed the World Trade Organization, helped create President Donald J. Trump, and is now attempting to bypass the dollar-centric SWIFT international payments system with a “CIPS” alternative of its own. The last of these, says Steil, “is being driven by the world’s desire to immunize itself from U. S. sanctions — when the U. S. attacked Iran, you saw a sharp spike of renminbi transactions on CIPS”. Benn SteilIllustration by Lauren CrowChairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Wu Qing, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Zheng Shanjie, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, and People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, attend a press conference, March 6, 2026. Credit: VCG viaAP ImagesWhat the Party is Really Worrying AboutDon’t just read China’s latest five-year plan to learn of its grand ambitions. Ann Listerud writesthat it should also be read with the Chinese Communist Party’s fears in mind. The latter include a domestic financial crisis, as belied by the bank bailout funds discussed in the plan. Subscribe today forunlimited access, starting at only $25 a month. Cover StoryThe Sun Sets for Chinese Solar in the U. S. Major Chinese solar companies are in a rush to reverse big investments as American firms look to build homegrown supply chains. EssayAmerica’s EV ReckoningXi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy sealed China off from the outside world for almost three years. Joshua Busby, a Biden-era climate advisor to the Pentagon and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, recently returned. . . Q & ACorporate Risk Intelligence for National Security, Compliance & Due DiligenceLearn More