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Inter-imperialist Energy Rivalry: China vs. U.S.

jeffmackler

Inter-imperialist Energy Rivalry: China vs. U.S.

By Jeff Mackler

“The massive development of fossil fuel versus renewable energy resources is today driving the U.S. and China in opposite directions.”

This is the central thesis of a recent New York Times series titled “Power Moves.” One article, published July 5 and titled “As U.S. Banks on Fossil Fuels, China Pulls Away in Green Energy”, presents a data-rich indictment of the Trump administration’s “drill, baby, drill” strategy. These policies have prioritized fossil fuel infrastructure over investments in renewables, with the goal of cementing U.S. dominance in global energy markets.

“Beijing is selling clean energy to the world. Washington is pushing oil and gas. Both are driven by national security,” write Peter Gelles and other Times reporters.

They continue:

“In China, more wind turbines and solar panels were installed last year than in the rest of the world combined. And China’s clean energy boom is going global. Chinese companies are building electric vehicle and battery factories in Brazil, Thailand, Morocco, Hungary and beyond.”

Meanwhile, in the United States:

“President Trump is pressing Japan and South Korea to invest ‘trillions of dollars’ in a project to ship U.S. liquefied natural gas from Alaska to Asia. And General Motors just killed plans to make electric motors at a factory near Buffalo, N.Y., and instead will put $888 million into building V-8 gasoline engines there.”

In short, capitalist profits and global supremacy—not environmental protection or workers’ rights—are driving the policies of both Washington and Beijing. Fossil fuels still account for 80% of global energy usage. That number is projected to fall to just under 60% by 2050, leaving plenty of room for continued profit-taking at the expense of the planet—unless a global working-class movement forces a reversal.

China’s Green Push—and Its Contradictions

China’s expansion into global solar markets is poised to bring devastating job losses to workers in Europe and the Global South. Like all capitalist competition, this effort is not about saving the planet but about dominating markets. The world’s tariff wars—led by the United States—are proof of the deep contradictions at the heart of global capitalism.

China is no environmental saint. It still burns more coal than the rest of the world combined and emits more climate pollution than the U.S. and Europe together. Some of its cities, like Beijing, have been among the most polluted on Earth. And yet, China leads in the production of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and EVs.

This is driven less by environmental concern and more by strategic necessity. China’s limited access to fossil fuels—and the volatility of global markets—has pushed it toward energy alternatives.

In 2024, China’s Build Your Dreams (BYD) EV company sold over four million battery-operated and plug-in hybrid vehicles—surpassing Tesla’s 1.8 million. BYD now produces cars that can recharge in just five minutes, a key technological advantage.

Over the past 25-plus years, according to The Times, “China came to dominate even clean energy industries the United States had once led. In 2008 the United States produced nearly half of the world’s polysilicon, a crucial material for solar panels. Today, China produces more than 90 percent. China’s auto industry is now widely seen as the most innovative in the world, besting the Japanese, the Germans and the Americans.”

Lessons from U.S. Oil Wars

The recent U.S./Israel war on Iran—China’s top oil supplier—underscored Beijing’s energy vulnerabilities. The same U.S. strategy has applied elsewhere: in Venezuela, where oil sanctions serve imperialist interests, and in Ukraine, where a 2014 U.S.-backed fascist-led coup against elected President Viktor Yanukovych facilitated the transfer of fossil fuel-rich Ukrainian territory into U.S.-aligned hands. The destruction of Russia’s pipelines to Europe—formerly supplying most of Germany’s fuel—was a multi-trillion-dollar gambit to transfer control of energy markets from Russia to U.S. oil corporations.

Billionaires Fall Out Over Corporate Tax Cuts

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with a net worth approaching $400 billion, has publicly criticized Trump’s anti-renewable agenda. The Trump administration’s threats to cut EV subsidies and freeze Musk out of $4.5 trillion in corporate tax breaks under the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” have turned former allies into adversaries. Musk’s new “America Party” was created to pressure Republican senators to defect from Trump and restore government subsidies critical to Tesla’s dominance in the EV market.

Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, and Profit

Fossil fuels remain the core driver of global warming. Rising carbon dioxide levels create a heat-trapping blanket around the Earth, intensifying storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, biodiversity loss, food crises, sea-level rise, and lethal heatwaves—like the ones recently seen in Texas and the Midwest.

Trump’s Energy Secretary, former gas executive Chris Wright, downplayed climate change as merely “a side effect of building the modern world.” With billions at stake, U.S. capitalism is willing to sacrifice the future for short-term profit—even if it means a few hundred drowned children in flooded Texas summer camps.

Asked about the diverging energy pathways of China and the U.S., Ben Dietderich, a Department of Energy spokesman, told the New York Times, “The United States is blessed with an abundant supply of energy resources and the Trump administration is committed to fully utilizing them to meet the growing energy needs of the American people. Past efforts to encourage cleaner energy like solar or wind, harmed America’s energy security.”

Renewable Investment Disparities

Consider the stark contrast in renewable investments:

Today, China’s fossil fuel exports total just $844 million annually, compared to the U.S.’s staggering $117 billion. At the same time, China is rapidly automating clean energy production. From 2021 to 2023, it installed more industrial robots than the rest of the world combined—seven times more than the U.S.

China now operates the world’s ten largest solar farms, including the newly opened Urumqi Solar Farm in Xinjiang, which produces more power than some entire nations consume. BYD is building two EV factories, each projected to outproduce Volkswagen’s largest plant in Germany, a facility that ranks first in the world in car production.

Integration into Global Capitalism

When China was a workers’ state, albeit bureaucratically deformed with a Stalinist bureaucracy, but with a planned socialist economy aimed at the fulfillment of human needs not capitalist profits, the country was essentially excluded from world trade. With the restoration of capitalism process that began in 1979, if not earlier, that has fundamentally changed.

Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has become fully integrated into global capitalism. Major U.S. corporations moved manufacturing to China to exploit ultra-low wages, where some workers – teenage girls working in dormitory factories – earned six cents an hour in 80-hour shifts. China offered U.S. corporations tax-free zones and few labor protections to attract this investment.

Today, China is a leading global exporter. Many formerly U.S.-owned factories are now Chinese-owned and robotically automated. And while the U.S. maintains over 1,100 military bases across 110 countries, China has just one overseas base—in Djibouti, at the Horn of Africa.

The Demise of U.S. Industry

U.S. industries like garment and textiles—once unionized and employing millions—have all but disappeared. Where such manufacturing does exist, it is run by a handful of technicians overseeing automated plants. This is no accident but a result of capitalism’s inherent drive to maximize profit through automation and offshoring, not to mention an increasingly low wage and non-union workforce. 

The U.S. today has its lowest unionization rate in over a century. And as profit rates fall, capitalists are forced to innovate or die—resulting in widespread deindustrialization and job loss. The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Statistics puts today’s labor participation rate at 62.3%.

China’s Nuclear Gambit

The Times piece, disturbingly supportive of nuclear energy, notes that China has 31 nuclear reactors under construction—nearly as many as the rest of the world combined—and is making major investments in next-gen nuclear and fusion technology.

This dangerous strategy is not green innovation—it’s a capitalist rush for dominance in a risky, still largely unproven field.

Conclusion: Two Systems, One Problem

Despite surface differences, the U.S. and China are both ruled by billionaire elites—each nation boasting roughly 850 billionaires—who profit from the exploitation of labor and environmental destruction. China’s renewable energy leadership is not a step toward socialism, but a product of its deep integration into the capitalist world system.

Any genuine solution to the climate crisis must break from this logic of profit and competition. China’s ongoing reliance on fossil fuels, its exploitation of domestic and foreign workers, and its expansion of nuclear power all underline the limitations of a capitalist “green transition.”

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