Western countries often complain that Chinese firms do not innovate, but rather copy western ideas and technologies. So how does the West react when Chinese firms innovate?
Since Chinese EV manufacturers are “cheating” Western designers, many people may think that only the Chinese are stealing product ideas and intellectual property. But in the world of EVs, we are actually starting to see the Chinese innovating (without the need to compete) and Western EV manufacturers starting to “borrow” old Chinese designs. . . .
I think the real reason for the cost is that the US EV industry – and the Japanese and Korean automakers with US manufacturing operations – don’t have a very competitive offering in the market. Therefore, the US has made a strategic decision to prioritize building a competitive EV industry at the expense of the American consumer in the short term..
China’s massive expansion of renewable energy, above all solar power, puts us in a prime position to meet these goals. As Ember reports has surprised experts around the world:
Each year the IEA has improved the forecasts: from 2021 to 2022 to 2023 the IEA’s accelerated scenario predicted that the additions for the year 2023 would be 218 GW, 257 GW, and 406 GW, respectively. With the latest updates from China, the actual additions for 2023 are 444 GW according to BNEF. To put the scale of additions in 2023 into context, annual solar capacity additions did not break 200 GW per year until 2022, which was a record year.
Having disrupted all previous experience of renewable energy deployment, China’s massive solar expansion now puts us within striking distance of achieving net zero, driven by green energy. . . . What we are witnessing is the fastest adoption of energy technology in history.
Was China praised for this innovation? The opposite:
The reaction of Western politicians? Protection. Of course there are complex motives. They need to build alliances to maintain the power transition. They are worried about the CCP regime in China. They want to avoid becoming too dependent on imported energy sources (although in the renewables sector it is the main commodity and not the energy they import). But the basic question is this. Are Western governments and societies willing to prioritize energy transition if it is not their drama, not their success story? Or, if PV panels and electric cars come from China, do other interests take precedence?
One of the most impressive examples of Chinese innovation is the social media site TikTok. How did the US government respond? By blocking the application. And we are doing everything we can to stop innovation in China’s computer chip industry.
I see a misunderstanding in the West’s views on China. We don’t want China to become a very successful technological superpower, because that threatens our national security. We don’t want China to become a middle-income country that doesn’t know how to borrow technology from the West, because that threatens jobs in our less developed industries. We seemed very happy with China when it was a low-income, dysfunctional country with its people living on the brink of starvation, cut off from the rest of the world. North Korea has a billion people. China will not be able to accept our wishes, nor should it.
The final piece of the “looted” controversy is the claim that Chinese companies are “stealing” the IP of their American partners in joint ventures. China’s power at the negotiating table is undeniable, and it uses its aggressive negotiating power to trade access to the Chinese market for learning. Yet American companies who claim to be victims enter into these deals freely and rarely come out as losers. These US businesses have made billions in sales and pocketed huge profits—a testament to their ability to navigate the competitive landscape.
Hawks overestimate the value of any IP that can be stolen. Oblivious to the technology that concerns them most, the hawks focus on blueprints without appreciating the art that is necessary for survival. After all, the secrets of technological innovation are not hidden. Recipes for making microchips have been available in university libraries for nearly 70 years, but making them takes more than just following instructions.