In barely a decade, China rewired the world’s clean‑energy future. Beijing targeted every zero‑carbon bottleneck—solar wafers, wind blades, battery cathodes, hydrogen stacks, ultrahigh‑voltage lines—and drove ruthless domestic rivalry until costs collapsed. Gigawatt weeks are now the rhythm of its factories; cheap panels, turbines and electric cars roll outward in endless freight. Along the Belt and Road that hardware finds purpose. On a Chinese‑built rail from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, refrigerated cars speed fruit once doomed to spoil; farmers who once survived on subsistence incomes now set export prices on smartphones charged by the same grid that waters their orchards.
Washington counters with tariffs, Brussels with carbon borders; analysts warn of debt traps and “over‑capacity.” Yet Earth’s temperature has jumped 0.3 °C in just four years, shoving us against the 1.5 °C guard‑rail. Against that clock, trade skirmishes feel parochial. The choice is stark: harness China’s scale—tempered by long‑tenor loans, transparent safeguards and local industry hubs—or drift toward a hotter, harsher equilibrium. The tracks are laid, the voltage live; history will record whether we boarded the train or watched it vanish into rising heat.
