How China Uses Transition to Renewables to Exert Global Dominance

A global turn to renewables as an energy source is benefitting Beijing, which controls much of the mineral deposits required for such a transition.

Soil containing various rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, China, in a file photo. STR/AFP via Getty Images

News analysis

While wind and solar energy and electric vehicles (EVs) have been touted as the future, the vast amounts of minerals required for their production will come predominantly from China—alongside all the risks that dependence on a rival nation entails, analysts say.