Green is an important color in Chinese culture. Jade symbolizes harmony with nature; the dragon represents transformation. Green tea symbolizes health; green bamboo implies resilience. And now, China wants to be known for its leadership of the global transition to green energy. But the transition does not include China – that image is fake, no more real than a dragon carved from jade.
Since the last UN climate conference (COP-30) in Brazil, climate activists around the world have praised China for its “commitment” to the effort – a commitment nobody had recognized in the previous three decades of UN gatherings. The Brazilian diplomat who chaired the meeting spoke of China’s “extraordinary progress,” which he called a shining example in the fight against climate change, while trashing other wealthy countries for shirking their responsibilities. Others highlighted China’s “constructive role as a steward of global climate change.” The Guardian gushed that “China has a long history of underpromising and overdelivering.” That bizarre report claimed that renewable energy accounts for more than half of China’s generating capacity and a third of its energy consumption, neither of which are true. But it concluded with a true statement: China’s exports of solar and wind components have sparked a growth in renewables around the world.
That was the plan all along. Several writers are now calling it the Great Chinese Wind Scam, because it was never intended to transform China’s economy, nor even necessarily do anything about global warming. Its intent was to dominate the supply chain and make the rest of the world’s commitment to renewables dependent upon supplies and minerals from China.
The Western World, especially the United States, were sold on the idea that wind energy would reduce emissions and slow climate change, while also rebuilding American manufacturing, creating millions of new green jobs, and even strengthening national security. President Biden’s Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called global warming the greatest threat to national security, making wind power essential to American survival.
Reasonable people may debate that last point, but it is hardly debatable who benefitted the most from that strategy – China. Politicians called it a transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy, which has not happened. In fact, it was a transition from the 50-year goal of energy independence to a new industry almost entirely dependent on China. Americans and Europeans debated while China built. Wind and solar factories. Rare-earth mines. Generators, turbines, and propellors. By the time most people noticed, China controlled 70 percent of the world’s wind-turbine supply chain and over 80 percent of the rare-earth minerals needed for all the green technologies.
The U.S. led the world in closing more than 300 coal-fired power plants over the last 15 years while China built them like their future depends on it, averaging two new coal plants every week for years. Those plants supply power to run factories that build wind turbines – not for China’s use, but for export to the U.S. and Europe. As we noted here last month, those wind turbines often operate at about one-third capacity, simply because the wind doesn’t always blow. China does not suffer that inconvenience. China uses coal.
Almost 60 percent of China’s own energy use is supplied by coal (Energy Institute research). Nine percent comes from wind, eight percent from solar, four percent from nuclear, and two percent from biofuels. 100 new planned coal plants a year guarantee that mix well into the future. In 2025, China shattered its own record, adding another 155 gigawatts of new coal power. That’s more than triple the new wind power added in the U.S. that year.
China also buys more than a third of all the oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz, and prior to the U.S. naval action was buying 68 percent of all Venezuela’s oil. It has also built a new nuclear plant every year for the past 13 years and has another 33 under construction now. None of that policy focus on increasing energy generation is directed at wind or solar.
All the praise lavished on China during the UN conference was pure bluster, bought and paid for. In truth, China exports wind turbines and rare-earths, expands its industrial power, dominates global supply chains, and increases pollution. While the U.S. accepts higher energy prices, an unstable electric grid, and continued dependence on foreign supplies.
Green tea imports from China have also doubled in a decade. And the green bamboo growing out of control across the U.S. is as invasive as the wind machines.
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