All Hail China? The World’s Greatest Manufacturing Super Power
There is a hint of delicious irony to all this. China currently manufactures 80% of the world’s solar panels, 75–80% of all batteries, 60–65% of wind turbine parts and 55% of global crude steel.
This staggering modern-day success story represents the largest, quietest transfer of industrial might and power in human history.
China’s manufacturing grunt is more than the next 15 countries combined—larger than the US, EU and Japan together.
To power this industrial onslaught, China commissions around six state-of-the-art coal plants a month (50–80 GW a year). It operates over 1,200 coal plants totaling 1,271 GW—more than half the world’s total capacity. Its coal mining fleet is four times larger than second-place India.
As a result, China’s share of global manufacturing grew from 6% to 30% since 2000. Meanwhile, America’s plunged like a lead balloon from 25% to around 12%, and Europe’s collapsed from 25% to around 14%. How? China uses abundant, reliable coal power, refuses to bind itself to net-zero, and has leadership that treats factories and steel mills as critical assets—unlike the West.
In geopolitical terms, this should be a lightning rod across the decaying West. But the job on the West is just about done, and the Western green transition is now almost entirely dependent on hardware manufactured by China.
This rise to dizzy heights was only made possible by using the same demonised dense fossil fuel energy that has already sent the Western world spiralling into a brackish, foul-tasting, latter-day mediaeval backwater. It should be the biggest, loudest, and most outrageous news story in the Western world—but it hardly rates a mention.
source x.com/PeterDClack
Tom
| #
And right behind China is India making great strides. The US? More concerned with wokeness, DEI and socialism. About the only thing we beat China at is silly data centers.
Reply
ecm
| #
Too simplistic to blame the transfer of manufacturing on energy!
The problem started with the greedy corporatists who had no national pride nor loyalty to their American workers (greed) and outsourced ad nauseam to China. China took advantage of this and started building factories and training their populace for manufacturing; this the communist government was able to do because they had a vision of empowerment (and world domination) and no bureaucrats to stop them. Further, the workers are also competent and not at all lazy. The rest is history.
Reply
Seriously
| #
Well said. They sought to take advantage of cheaper labor in purportedly 3rd world countries to line their pockets…instead, they have created the next generation of world dominate super powers. American goods were renowned for there strong build, life performance. We were proud of what we produced. Now, all is cheap, made to break – their newest idea of consumer capture… because nothing lasts. Remember when car batteries would last 20 years? Now you’re lucky if you get 3 years. And to gens coming up, this is ‘normal’.
So, kudos to China, to India! European countries and their American extention treated them as ‘less than’ for so long, because they didn’t live as we live, their millenia(s) of culture and knowledge considered backward and outlier. These countries were pillaged, raped, murdered, for the almighty coinage and power they provided. Now they’ve learned all we thought them lacking…and they will take it all for themselves. Revenge indeed….
Reply