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Macroscope | China’s rise as world’s green factory has put West on the back foot
- China’s growing dominance in solar panels, electric cars and batteries is putting US and European manufacturers at a disadvantage and is attracting defensive hostility
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China’s reputation as the “factory of the world” is taking on new and unwelcome implications for embattled Western and Japanese competitors who see their positions being eroded in areas extending from car production to green products.
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Recent decisions taken by the National People’s Congress endorsing earlier ones by the Politburo and emphasising the development of “new productive forces” in China can only exacerbate these fears and phobias.
They imply that China’s economic presence will become even more powerful in Global South countries, where it has made great strides in overturning the dominance of Western nations in everything from infrastructure to pharmaceuticals.
The West finds itself in a game of whack-a-mole as it seeks to thwart the development of key Chinese industries with tariffs, other economic sanctions and even national security barriers as China switches deftly to new product and export areas.
This antipathy has a history of incredulity and indignation on the part of Western powers that China could have made the great leap forward it has since abandoning the excesses of Maoism. China is promising another great leap now.
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I must admit that when I was asked to speak at a Shanghai conference on economic development several decades go, I suggested that China should focus on exports of simple consumer goods to mass markets in the developing world. Such patronising attitudes were common even at that time.
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