Akihabara News — There is growing evidence that China’s commanding position in clean technology manufacturing, and its control over global supply chains from solar panels to batteries, has convinced the Trump administration that competing in renewables equates to subsidizing the rival superpower. They are thus willing to deliberately lose the climate change technology race rather than adopt measures to catch up. They would rather concede than admit that America has been outperformed.
China’s dominance in clean energy manufacturing is quantifiable and accelerating. According to multiple sources, China now controls over 70% of global manufacturing capacity related to renewables. Last year, China installed nearly nine times the US total of new renewable energy capacity. In the first half of 2025, it added more solar panels than the rest of the world combined. Clean energy now contributes 10% to China’s GDP. Innovations like five-minute electric vehicle (EV) charging and massive solar farms, such as the Tibetan Plateau complex, position Beijing to capture 70% of global clean technology exports by 2030.
Moreover, China’s EV industry has surged to global preeminence, commanding over 60% of worldwide sales and reshaping the automotive landscape through unmatched scale, affordability, and innovation. This dominance stems from battery supremacy by firms like CATL, BYD, and CALB, which leaves US and European competitors struggling to compete.
President Donald Trump routinely calls climate change a “hoax” benefiting China, emphasizing the need for oil and gas development, where the United States is the top producer and exporter.
“They don’t see climate change as a problem,” George David Banks, who ran Trump’s first-term climate portfolio, told Politico. He added: “They don’t want to essentially create a jobs program for China.”
Policies reflect this: The One Big, Beautiful Bill, signed July 4, 2025, repealed key Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. Trump executive orders banned new federal wind leasing and paused EV incentives, temporarily halting the nearly complete Revolution Wind farm off Rhode Island, citing unspecified national security interests.
Critics highlight the stakes. US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, attending COP30 unofficially as the administration boycotted it, spotted Chinese EV dealerships upon arrival and warned: “It actually really hurts us economically to be missing out on the clean energy transition and to be missing out on global leadership.”
Even many analysts who are not deeply concerned with the development of renewables note that US grid strains stemming from the rising demands of Artificial Intelligence data centers argue for rapid buildouts of all energy resources.
Globally, even traditional fossil fuel powers are embracing the transition to renewable energy. Saudi Arabia, for example, is eyeing 50% renewables by 2030.
While many nations have adopted slow and unambitious renewable energy plans, no other government matches the Trump administration’s wholesale assault on the solar and wind power industries, which is based in part on superpower rivalry.
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