There was a time when the world looked to China to reduce its emissions. China was, they quite rightly pointed out, one of the globes worst polluters.

But its never been the worlds worst offender. There are many arguments why. The obvious one is the per capita argument:China has more people, so it should have more pollution. Then the manufacturing argument: China manufactures more than any other country. Then, the export of dirty technology argument: until recent years the exported their dirty industries to China because it was better over there, now they can blame others!

All these are valid arguments. The one country producing almost 30% of all the worlds manufactured goods, 45% of the worlds chemicals and 54% of the worlds steel was indeed a big polluter.

Something needed to be done and it was. China reforested more of its country than any other, 70 million hectares with a target of 70 billion trees, in fact, they havent just made one industry out of it theyve made two, because its also a huge tourism draw with 1.5 billion visits to National Forests in an average year.

China installed more solar power than the rest of the world combined, it has more wind power than the combined totals of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. The Country has the worlds first Thorium Reactor and is planning more.

What more can one country do? We might ask.

We can take gas guzzling cars off the roads.

And so they did. We now see electric cars, buses, taxis, and delivery vehicles, almost 100% of public transport, food and parcel deliveries in most cities are done on electric power, the skies really are cleaner and the air really is fresher.

But then came the naysayers: first of all, EVs wont be powerful enough to pull a trailer, until that was proven wrong. So, another problem was created; EV range is an issue, but China overcame that by installing literally millions of public, private and shared EV charging stations. Even the EV car companies got on the bandwagon with US company Tesla announcing the installation of their 10,000th (and still counting) charging station but they were eclipsed by BYD, which has 760,000 of them.

Huawei has introduced a fusion Charger allowing for 9-minute full charge, Nio has battery swap-out for its owners allowing for 8-minute replacements, so another complaint about waiting time is no longer an issue. If power, range and waiting time problems have been eliminated whats left?

Well, according to the Guardian, range concerns have given way to security concerns. Not just one concern, there are many.

Apparently our cars can spy on us. Well, we know that, its whats driven car safety for the last decade or more: cars are getting smarter. But the truth is, scaremongering is getting smarter too, Chinese cars only do what European and American cars can already do, so whats there to fear? Reading the Australian Financial Review, quite a lot it seems.

In one article we are informed that all the major player in EV batteries happens to be Chinese this is because, for decades China has focused on scientific and technological development. So, yes, its true. But its a threat that the West created for themselves, China dominates the market and just like the pollution of decades ago, Chinas to blame again, not the Western policies that drove the situation.

But there is also a connection to mythical forced labour as one of the companies involved, CATL, has been linked to unproven allegations of forced Uyghur labour.

And, as if that wasnt enough CATLs founder was a representative to the Chineses Peoples Consultative Conference. This man had the temerity to take part in Chinas democratic process and now, his links to the CCP make him, and his company, a threat to the free world.

Havent journalists noticed that the US Secretary of Defence is aboard member of a missile manufacturer?

And theres another one, Chinese companies (same as US companies) are obliged to hand over material required by the government if the government asks for it. This then apparently creates an unimaginable issue for people like Tom Cotton in the US Senate who cant seem to understand that a US registered business, in this case TikTok, has absolutely no requirement to answer any of Beijings questions. Theres the solution, force them to register locally.

So, there we have it, our cars can spy on us, they can shut down the grid if were not careful, they can send information back to Beijing and they can force Uyghurs to work in a battery factory because an American agricultural machinery company has put them out of work. And the pice de resistance? The owner of the company was once part of Chinas governance.

If the media was where it stopped, we could all breath a sigh of relief. After all, no one believes what they read in the papers, do they?

But, even Gina No way are we gonna let them catch up Raimondo and Ursula Von Der Leyen have jumped on this bandwagon, with Ms. Raimondo asking : do you want all that data going to Beijing?. While in her State of the Union Address, Von Der Leyen announced an Anti-Subsidy investigation into Electric Vehicles coming from China. Now we see the real reason!

Naysayers complained about range, they complained about power, they complained about security and even played the Uyghur trump card. But none of them worked because it was never about any of those issues. Instead, its because Chinas cars are too cheap for European buyers. So, rather than making European manufacturers compete, European governments will just increase prices through tariffs and additional taxes.

There isnt a fear of security. If there was, theyd do what they did with Huawei and ban them. There are no perceived human rights abuses, because theyd just do what they did with HKVision and sanction them. It isnt about them potentially taking over the grid, because they can check against that and guard against hacking, as all responsible corporations do, or should!

This is, as MITs Technology Review points out and Raimondo admits, because Chinas lead in EV manufacturing is too great for Europe and the US to catch up. Chinas supply chain efficiencies and lower production costs mean the European Union cant make a car for the price BYD can sell one and, for capitalists, thats the end of their game. A game in which China has taken a significant and seemingly insurmountable lead.