The title above a table in a New York Times opinion piece today, reads “China is powering the boom in solar.”  From a manufacturing perspective, that is true; from a financial perspective, the statement leaves out the amount of money that Americans and other democratic countries send to China for solar and wind energy equipment.

The article goes on to say, “In 2022, roughly 90 percent of the solar wafers and solar cells produced in the world were Chinese — by some measures more than twice as many as the rest of the world was even ready to install. Last year, more than 60 percent of the world’s wind turbines were manufactured in China and 60 percent of the world’s E.V. sales came from China.”

Investment powers manufacturing.  Disregarding this financial aspect encourages dangerous conclusions.

The Communist Party of China’s (CPC) apparent embrace of environmental concerns belies its foundational disregard for life and nature.  Above all else, the CPC acts to assure its survival.  It will terminate lives and destroy ecosystems to preserve its power.  The CPC’s system, however, does not regenerate capital as well as America’s system.  Consequently, the CPC depends on American capital for its survival.

Developing manufacturing capabilities for solar and wind energy equipment supports CPC ambitions especially in two ways.  First, industrial production orders plus fabrication abilities attract investment from outside of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  Second, developing solar and wind competencies augment the CPC’s military resources.  Solar panel and microchip manufacturing know-how overlap.  Making wind turbine generators and wind blades sustain supply chains and complement expertise for building electrical systems and airfoils that guide and fly military weapons.

US leaders and taxpayers should consider delaying or suspending policies whose implementation takes dollars away from Americans and sends those dollars to companies that augment CPC war-making ambitions.