China And America’s Trade War on Clean Energy Revolution: Taking Electric Vehicle Industry as An Example

Abstract

This paper is based on several backgrounds. The first one is the increasingly severe global climate crisis and the imperative global green energy revolution. The second one is China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative which has been put into efforts since 2013 in order to “create more opportunities for common development on the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution and for the commonwealth of the world” (proposed by Xi Jinping, on a meeting with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel on July 15, 2021) and America’s countermeasures against China’s economic movement. The research focuses on the electric vehicle industry area that clearly shows the tendency of global green energy revolution, the innovations and the complex geopolitical situation and conflicts of countries on this rising industry. To get into the topic, 2 specific examples: The cobalt (a vital resource in the EV industry) mining industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Tesla’s global strategy and its factory in Shanghai. This research will also talk about the orientation of the new technologies in the electric vehicle industry and how it is going to reshape the industry and their geopolitical impact on the world. This research mainly uses the method of literature research. The paper focuses on collecting and analyzing the facts and data of the industry, different perspectives and viewpoints from different stakeholders (mainly the US and China) and the developing situation of the geopolitical environment in the nowadays world.