Chinese state media takes aim at US overcapacity claims as wary G7 insists on playing field level
- The United States is trying to reduce China’s advantages in new energy industries, researcher says
- G7 finance chiefs say they’re worried about Chinese ‘non-market policies and practices’ that undermine workers and industries in their economies
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The finance chiefs said they would continue to monitor the potential negative impacts of overcapacity and would consider taking steps to ensure a level playing field, in line with World Trade Organization principles.
They also raised concerns about trade ties between Beijing and Moscow.
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In the People’s Daily article, Jin Ruiting, a researcher from the National Development and Reform Commission, said the overcapacity problem did not exist.
Jin, from the NDRC’s Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said the capacity utilisation rate of China’s new energy industry was higher than that in other countries, and in global terms, production capacity was well short of meeting market demand.
“The US efforts to hype up the ‘overcapacity’ of China’s new energy industries is its usual tactic to suppress other countries’ advantageous industries,” he said, saying it was motivated by US “hegemonic thinking”, a term referring to a desire to remain dominant.
“China has provided high-quality, affordable green products for countries around the world, and has contributed greatly to the global green and low-carbon transformation.”
Jin also argued that China’s new energy industry had reached its position through continued, rapid technological innovation in a fully competitive market.
“China’s new energy industry obtained its advantages through real skills,” he said, adding that Chinese manufacturing covered a range of categories and the length of the industrial chain.
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But China is struggling to convince the United States and the European Union about the virtues of its new energy products.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has also announced it will impose high punitive tariffs on more than a dozen Chinese products, including electric vehicles.
China has said the overcapacity argument raised by American politicians is “clearly politically-motivated”, “misleading”, and meant to “tarnish and suppress the Chinese economy”.
Meanwhile, the EU is investigating subsidies for Chinese EV and wind turbine manufacturers. The inquiry was launched late last year and so far no action has been taken.
Asked on Wednesday about the G7’s overcapacity agenda, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the discussions were “diametrically opposed to facts and the laws of economics and is pure protectionism”.
Wang said “overcapacity” was just a pretext for the US to try to coerce G7 members into “creating fences and restrictions for Chinese new energy products”.
