It's time to get serious about China

[crws]

Next time you go out for some retail therapy, play this game-
See how many non-food consumer products you would buy that are not made in China.
Just China, not other countries.
If there is anything to fear as Americans, it is that China will soon be able to tell us what to do....and we will have no choice but to comply.
I'm not kidding.
Economic threat by oil pales in comparison to how China, with a military budget 1/7th that of the US,
has already taken over the vast majority of the world's renewable energy component production and
are loaning US companies money for the technology and production rights of US developments.
All this before the US has even developed a cohesive renewable energy strategy.

They are shameless in their quest for global domination, and it is getting way beyond the point of obtaining inexpensive goods.

Witness these articles and judge for yourself, seriously.
I wonder how much influence the recently deported group of Chinese spies had with these objectives.
What happens when our China credit card gets declined is what I think the market really needs to be concerned with.

Assert Yourself, America; Don’t be an Illegal Trade Victim
So how is it that America finds herself in the position of schoolyard patsy, woe-is-me casualty of China’s illegal trade practices
that are destroying U.S. renewable energy manufacturing and foreclosing an energy-independent future?

Come on, America. Show some of that confident pioneer spirit. Stand up for yourself. Tell China that America isn’t going
to hand over its lunch money anymore; international trade law will be enforced now.

Keith Bradsher
Keith Bradsher has been the Hong Kong bureau chief of The New York Times since 2002, covering Asian business, economic, political and science news.


From zero to 1/2 of world production in 4 years:

 

[Silverbird]

China's energy market for solar is miniscule. Yes, they are working on it but the infrastructure is pretty spotty and poor. Access to their market (since solar energy/power is NOT a consumer purchase in China - it's not a house upgrade, it's local infrastructure) is not as big of a problem as the incentives that keep the non-productive producers of solar cells in business.

What makes them such a big supplier of solar panels are the incentives for semiconductor (including solar cells and panels) production, and State-Owned Enterprises switching from outdated, low demand discrete (non-integrated circuit) semiconductors over to solar cells (which at least have a market).
Due to the small size of China's solar energy market, and the over-production of solar cells in China, over 95 percent (last available)is exported - primarily to Germany - which has the largest solar energy infrastructure and incentives for the solar energy. If they were U.S. businesses, most of the Chinese suppliers would be out of businss as they don't make any profits - with a few exceptions such as Suntech. Quality is also in question for most of these panels, remember they don't need to make money.

Note: Japan is the only major market for Solar cells and panels that I am aware is mostly household rooftop panels. Most of the other markets have some rooftop-based but it's not the majority of their solar power infrastructure.

 

[crws]

China's energy market for solar is miniscule. Yes, they are working on it but the infrastructure is pretty spotty and poor.

What makes them such a big supplier of solar panels are the incentives for semiconductor (including solar cells and panels) production, and State-Owned Enterprises switching from outdated, low demand discrete (non-integrated circuit) semiconductors over to possibly profitable solar cells).
Due to the small size of China's solar energy market, and the over-production of solar cells in China, over 95 percent (last available)is exported - primarily to Germany - which has the largest solar energy infrastructure and incentives for the solar energy.

the export factor is what I am talking about. They have beaten us to the punch on production. Again.

 

[Silverbird]

That's because of the incentives. US on the whole doesn't like the Govt picking winners (and losers). I don't like incentives but every other country seems to have a 5 or 10 year plan and wants to fund local manufacturing development. It's not just China, I'm talking about the EU, Japan, China, India, Taiwan, Korea...well just about everyone except the U.S. But I can't see the Department of Commerce becoming the Department of Industry and Enterprise (DIE hehehe), we are not set up for it.

But do we really want to do it that way? Or is it the price of having the market decide? What we have to realize is other countries don't have a moral dillema with this issue.

 

[crws]

That's because of the incentives. US on the whole doesn't like the Govt picking winners (and losers). I have mixed feelings on it, I don't like incentives but every other country seems to have a 5 or 10 year plan and wants to fund local manufacturing development. It's not just China, I'm talking about the EU, Japan, China, India, Taiwan, Korea...well just about everyone except the U.S.

But do we really want to do it that way? Or is it the price of having the market decide? What we have to realize is other countries don't have a moral dillema with this issue.

That's what the United Steel Workers lawsuit against China is about.
China is the country violating international trade rules with illegal Gov't incentives.
It's an interesting read.
Assert Yourself, America; Don’t be an Illegal Trade Victim
Posted by Leo Gerard at 8:59 am
September 10, 2010
Long-suffering victim is hardly the American image. Paul Revere, Mother Jones, John Glenn, Martin Luther King Jr. — those are American icons. Bold, wry, justice-seeking.

So how is it that America finds herself in the position of schoolyard patsy, woe-is-me casualty of China’s illegal trade practices that are destroying U.S. renewable energy manufacturing and foreclosing an energy-independent future?

Come on, America. Show some of that confident pioneer spirit. Stand up for yourself. Tell China that America isn’t going to hand over its lunch money anymore; international trade law will be enforced now.

That’s the demand the United Steelworkers (USW) union made this week when it filed a 5,800-page suit detailing how China violates a wide variety of World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations.

The case, now in the hands of the U.S. Trade Representative, shows how China uses illegal land grants, prohibited low-interest loans and other outlawed measures to pump up its renewable energy industries and facilitate export of those products at artificially low prices to places like the United States and Europe.

The U.S. aids renewable energy industries, like solar cell and wind turbine manufacturers, but no where near the extent that China does. And the American aid lawfully goes to renewable manufacturers that produce for domestic consumption. China, by contrast, illegally subsidizes industries that export, a strategy that kills off competition.

The USW recognizes and appreciates that trade with China has lifted millions there out of poverty. But truly fair trade would benefit workers in both China and the United States. And that is what the USW is demanding.

The USW is far from alone in accusing China of violations. New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher described them in a story Sept. 8, titled “On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules.” It ends with this quote from Zhao Feng, general manger of Hunan Sunzone Optoelectronics, a two-year-old solar panel manufacturer that exports nearly 95 percent of its products to Europe and is opening offices in three U.S. cities to push into the American market:

“Who wins this clean energy race really depends on how much support the government gives.”

The U.S. isn’t providing support that violates WTO regulations. China is. And it’s hundreds of billions — $216 billion from China’s stimulus package, another $184 billion to be spent through 2020, $172 million in research and development over the past four years.

Bradsher’s story details illegal aid given Sunzone and says that it’s common, not exceptional. It includes China turning over land to Sunzone for a third of the market price and government-controlled banks granting Sunzone low-interest loans that the provincial government helps Sunzone repay.

In addition, the USW suit notes that China, which accounts for 93 percent of the world’s production of so-called rare earth materials like dysprosium and terbium essential for green energy technology, has severely restricted their export. That practice, illegal under WTO rules, forces some foreign companies to move manufacturing to China to get access.

And when corporations move, China routinely – and illegally — mandates they transfer technology to Chinese partners, which often means U.S.-tax-dollar-supported research and development benefits China.

That is one reason China rose to first in the world in clean energy so quickly. China now leads globally in producing solar panels. It doubled its wind power capacity in one year – 2009. Worldwide, Chinese manufacturers supply at least half of all hydropower projects and fabricate 75 percent of all compact fluorescent light bulbs.