“Electrification” is a process of swapping processes and technologies reliant on fossil fuels with electrically powered alternatives. It is also a process that will play a critical role to tackle climate change. 

Although China is the world’s second-largest economy and also it is fast to become the U.S.’s chief rival of nuclear-armed superpower, it is still highly dependable on foreign nations for energy. While it is growing its GDP, its imports have surged to record high for coal and oil. It can face potential disruptions via chokepoints in trade channels from the disputed waters of Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean.

China is on its way to become the world’s first electrostate, with a growing share of its energy coming from electricity and an economy driven by clean technologies, even if there is a trade decoupling and rising geopolitical tensions with the U.S. 

China is not only moving towards self-efficiency in energy from securing domestic sources but also applying technologies for the future. It is leading the latest technological revolution in electrification and renewable energy. Aside of the oil and coal, clean energy is playing its important role. Clean energy is responsible for 10% of the country’s GDP and it has become an important drive for the economy. 

China remains the world’s biggest greenhouse gas producer, and its emissions reached a new high in 2024., driven by a rise of its coal consumption. It has to phase out the use of coal in order to become the “electrostate.”

Xi Jinping came to realize the growth of the country’s economy would have to come out from its technological backward of its energy industry, which had been underpinned by fossil oil and coal. But a decade ago, China’s rate of electrification was way ahead of the U.S. and Europe. Since then, they have they have been catching up and reached 22%, while China is leading by its 30%.

Its investments into the clean tech sector, both from the state-owned developers and the private sector, are five times as much as the U.S. and 15 times of Japan. Companies involving in wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries are developing green power which are used to power the electric vehicles, trucks, trains, ships, and factories.

This year’s growth in electric vehicles including the pure battery and plug-in hybrids will reach 12.5 million, more than double that of 2022. Its rapid expansion of its modern railway network handled 4 billion passenger trips last year, and the high-speed rail spans 45,000 kilometers. It is forecasted to reach 60,000 kilometers by 2030.

The country has forecasted to spend as much as $800 billion to upgrade its electric grid by 2030 in both its hardware and software. This can serve 40 ultra-high-voltage lines to transmit solar and wind electricity generated in the western desert of Xinjiang and Gansu to key factory hubs in its southern and eastern regions. This also means that China is on the course to source 50% of its power from low-carbon energy including hydropower, solar, wind, nuclear, and battery storage system by 2028.

While China’s industrial policy is also leading to overcapacity, and it has hammered foreign rivals and adding to a significant trade imbalance. Its cleantech manufacturing capacity has massively overtaking its domestic demand, in this we have seen immerse supply in solar panel. Some of these low-graded panels being used in Europe can also be considered as wasteful. Country like Germany is already calling for China to tackle this disconnection between innovation and efficiency.

It is hard to change China as the country has spent decades in trying to secure its access to the world’s critical resources, building the process and refining infrastructure, while subsidizing its domestic manufacturing and consumption. It has now dominated all stages of the supply chain—from mines to factories.

China also issued loans worth nearly $57 billion from 2000 to 2001 to the developing countries to secure access to critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium, and rare earths.

Contrary to what the Trump administration is doing, China is increasingly exporting its clean technology, engineering, supplying, and financing capabilities to gain dominance internationally. Since the start of 2023, China committed $156 billion in outbound foreign direct investment across more than 200 clean technology transactions to gain political and economic influence globally. Trump withdrawn from the Paris Agreement during Trump’s administration in 2017, and Biden rejoined it on February 20, 2021, in his first day in office. This time in Trump’s second term, U.S. President signed a number of executive orders, including the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization (WHO). Trump showed again his uncooperating.

With the world entering global trade challenges triggered by Trump’s tariff war, the world has to deal with the green energy supply chains citing the challenges of potential risks from economic dependence as well as political threats. We have found that China is ahead of the game of electrification.