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Bernard Chan

US President Donald Trump’s negative portrayal of China’s achievements in renewable energy began at a White House meeting with oil executives on January 9 and was amplified at the World Economic Forum later that month.
The story he told was shaped more by domestic politics than fact – a narrative that has lingered through subsequent debates over China’s alleged clean-energy “overcapacity”.
While such rhetoric might rally support in the American Midwest, it does not withstand scrutiny. Trump’s jibes served a familiar political purpose: to undermine European net-zero strategies, defend fossil fuels at home and frame China’s green industries as a strategic threat rather than a shared solution. What he is really attacking is the country at the centre of the global clean-energy supply chain.
When Trump paints China’s wind sector as a backward, export-only operation – claiming Chinese companies make most of the world’s turbines, sell them to “stupid” European buyers and barely use them at home – he is mocking the very hardware helping his allies meet their climate targets.
For much of the past two decades, Beijing has treated cleaner air and power as instruments of economic progress. Long before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 2060 carbon neutrality pledge, China was integrating energy security, pollution control and industrial upgrading into a single planning logic that now underpins the energy transition.
The mainland’s grid-connected wind and solar capacity exceeded 1.84 billion kilowatts last year, overtaking coal for the first time and accounting for roughly 47 per cent of total installed power capacity. Renewable energy accounted for more than 60 per cent of electricity generation capacity. In the first quarter, wind and solar power accounted for 22.5 per cent of electricity consumption.


Trump’s tale of an export-only turbine industry bears little resemblance to a Chinese power system in which non-fossil-fuel capacity now dominates, and wind and solar have overtaken coal in installed capacity.
The success was carefully planned. The central government has been embedding binding energy and pollution targets in its five-year plans for over two decades, forcing provinces to meet efficiency goals and close coal plants. This has evolved into a comprehensive climate framework centred on carbon-intensity benchmarks, emissions trading schemes, stricter coal controls and sustained support for wind, solar and electric vehicles (EVs).
In both government offices and boardrooms, decarbonisation is treated as an engineering challenge. Experiments such as Xian’s 100-metre-tall “smog tower”, a solar-powered, giant air filter, show a readiness to try unconventional fixes. More consequential, though less eye-catching, is the routine work: wind farms, solar parks, electrified transport and grid upgrades, rolled out province by province, adjusted and expanded nationwide.
By strategically managing land allocation, permits, credit facilities and grid investment, climate policy has become a key industrial strategy. Solar panels, batteries, EVs and transmission equipment sit at the centre of China’s trade figures and other countries’ decarbonisation programmes.
While the rhetoric from many Western governments warns of overcapacity and excessive reliance on a single supplier, they continue to buy Chinese equipment because it is affordable, reliable, readily available and difficult to replace, even as many struggle to meet their net-zero goals.


None of this means the story is straightforward. China is a vast country and remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. New coal plants are still being approved and heavy industry, freight and heating continue to pollute.
But China is well ahead of the rest of the world in its energy transition, proceeding at a scale and speed rivals find difficult, if not impossible, to match. The transition is being layered onto an old system rather than built from new, which makes its pace all the more uncomfortable for rivals.
From Hong Kong’s perspective, the government aims to halve total carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2035 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2050. The city has been working quietly with institutions in the European Union, a major trading partner and investor, in rail, power systems, green finance, waste-to-energy and low-carbon building design – all central to decarbonisation.
That alignment is practical, and European companies have long operated in the city, adding sensors, software and efficiency upgrades to reduce energy use.


Yet this reality sits uneasily with Trump’s portrayal of China. He presents a story of Chinese companies churning out turbines for Europeans yet relying on coal at home when the power system already has non-fossil-fuel capacity that dominates, and wind and solar have overtaken coal in installed capacity.
Whatever the rhetoric, clean-energy capacity is being built on an extraordinary scale – and Hong Kong sits at the junction where those technologies, capital flows and standards converge.
In the end, it is not Chinese turbines or European rules that look out of date, but rather Trump’s belief that China’s energy transition is not already leading the world and continuing to advance at scale.


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Climate change

Trump’s climate jibes at China and EU just make him look out of date

US President Donald Trump enjoys a light moment during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House in Washington on January 9. Photo: AP

‘Overcapacity’ talk reflects a West irked by China’s industrial rise

Workers check solar panels installed over a lake in Tianchang, east China’s Anhui province on January 12. Cheap solar panels are not a climate problem; they are part of the climate solution. Photo: AFP


A Chinese BYD Yangwang U9 car is on display at the Essen Motor Show in Essen, western Germany in 2024. Photo: AFP

It’s time the West genuinely accepted China’s global ascent

Illustration: Craig Stephens

Bionic robots dance during the “Spring Festival Gala” on a train going from Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province to Beijing on February 13. Photo: Xinhua 

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) gestures as he meets with US President Donald Trump (left) during a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, on May 15. Photo: AFP

People buy vegetables at a market in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on June 10. Photo: CN-STR / AFP

EU should think twice before weaponising its market against China

Europe could prosper as China’s trade ally rather than adversary

Workers assemble the stand for German carmaker BMW ahead of the Beijing Auto Show 2026 at the China International Exhibition Centre on April 22. Photo: AFP

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It’s not Chinese turbines or European rules that look outdated but Trump’s belief that China’s energy transition is not world-leading


It’s not Chinese turbines or European rules that look outdated but Trump’s belief that China’s energy transition is not world-leading.


US-China relations

Donald Trump

Wind energy

Renewable energy

European Union

China and climate change

Business of climate change

Climate change diplomacy

Climate change science and technology

Solar energy

Electric & new energy vehicles

Energy

World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos

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Xi Jinping

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Trump’s climate jibes at China and EU just make him look out of date

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}It’s not Chinese turbines or European rules that look outdated but Trump’s belief that China’s energy transition is not world-leading

It’s not Chinese turbines or European rules that look outdated but Trump’s belief that China’s energy transition is not world-leading