How? By taking advantage of the free market while being closed off themselves. Not having those annoying environmental concerns when mining and processing rare earths probably helped a great deal too. And let’s not forget slave-like labour conditions. China dominates solar by being clever and ruthless, not by being smart or efficient. They can’t offset the burst of their housing market bubble by dumping more cheap electric cars and solar panels on western harbors and they know it. That being said western governments are foolish to first happily sign trade agreements with China just to moan about how unfair state capitalism is to compete with now. You knew what you signed up for and lied through your teeth when you said more trade would surely democratise the mainland.
Ofc, it wasn’t even very long ago that western people were like “dude solar will continue to be too expensive for many decades hurr durr it is a pipe dream” meanwhile the chinese were like “yeah keep saying that hihi”
When Reagan took office he tore down the solar panels Carter had on the White House.
Not just a dick move; a metaphor. Surprise me and tell me the NYT mentioned that, or made a significant point about the fact that republiQans are constantly hindering renewable energy in this country.
No? Yeah. Classic NYT. Giving you the story but not giving you the truth.
Gotta love this framing that is trying to get me to see China as the big bad rival.
Like, we are in a climate emergency, great if China makes a bunch of solar panels and drives down the cost, it’s the US’s fault for not recognizing that this is an emergency too and responding by subsidizing solar production in the US to the point that China’s actions weren’t a problem.
If we were talking about graphics cards, or luxury cars, or something else that wasn’t trying to combat catastrophic climate change I might feel differently, but in this context things are so desperate that it is as simple as More Solar Panels = Good
Congratulations, you’re noticing that we’re in a trade war and most discussions around China and the US are about serving their respective ruling classes.
The clearly implied meaning of using “Congratulations” in your post is to convey an ironic sense of surprise at something that isn’t surprising or new, and that most other people (or at least you) have known for a long time.
Why would you use “Congratulations” in this context for any other purpose than condescension?
I mean I don’t even care that much but I don’t get why you are denying it?
Do you genuinely think if I did have serious problems that this kind of attitude and response would do anything other than make me feel more shame and make it less likely I would get help?
And the industry basically gave the tech to China because the local industry didn’t believe in it, or at least went against the ruling ideology. Solar, wind turbines, electric cars… Of course now it’s “but who could have predicted this?” and the answer to that question is China themselves who laid out their plans years ago and were ignored.
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