Recently, the Biden administration announced that it would investigate electric vehicles made in China "in the name of threatening national security". There is also a growing debate about whether China's electric vehicles will steal data, and even the current growth rate of electric vehicle exports has slowed. Do China's electric vehicles really threaten national security? What is the basis of the U.S. investigation? Who exactly do Chinese electric vehicles offend?
In order to find the source of all the information, we built an AI database using the latest large-scale model technology. Get real-time access to more than 600 million stories per day from around the world. And, for the first time, digital journalists were able to search for clues in a virtual database.
Let's uncover the truth of the facts.
The starting point: a letter riddled with holes
When we grabbed the labels of China's electric vehicles and national security in the large model system, and chose the emotional tendency as negative, in the past 30 days, more than 5,000 reports. And when we turn back the clock, we find that the search volume has been stable until July last year, and it has gradually increased.
What happened last July?
The system found the content that was most associated with these tags, pointing to such a letter. This is a letter written by four members of Congress to U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo and U.S. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, which happened to be in July last year.
At this time, however, the letter was aimed at self-driving vehicles in China. It is proposed that Chinese companies have successively registered and carried out tests in California, the most populous state in the United States, in order to collect more data on Americans.
It seems to make sense, is that really the case?
We went to the California Department of Vehicles website to find information on all the tests of all vehicles in the last two years. When we screened out the vehicles belonging to Chinese companies, we found that:
- In 2022, there were 124 vehicles from 7 companies;
- In 2023, there are 74 vehicles left, from 4 companies.
Carefully comparing the two lists, we find that Pony.ai, which ranked first among Chinese companies in 2022, will disappear in 2023 along with its 44 test vehicles.
Pony.ai, the name seems to have appeared in the letter. In the letter, Pony.ai is singled out as a typical example of stealing data. Was it really expelled from California because of this?
When we inquired about the specific time when Pony.ai was forced to leave California, we found that it was as early as May 2022.
It is clear that the eviction of Chinese companies has already begun, but in July 2023, the old matter will be brought up again in the name of national security. The car is gone, how to steal the data?
Such a letter, full of loopholes and even fabrication, became the starting point of the US investigation of Chinese automobiles.
Means: Concepts are constantly confused
Within 72 hours of the letter being exposed, we found that the search volume in the field of public opinion was actually only more than 2,000, which is very different from the current discussion heat. It's only been 9 months since the letter was sent, but what has happened in between?
We used an AI database to find all the remarks made in public by all U.S. politicians and think tank scholars:
- In October 2023, someone began to speak out. At this time, the subject of discussion changed from "self-driving cars" to "connected cars", and the more popular expression increased the popularity of searches in three days, from more than 2,000 times to more than 500,000.
- In November 2023, the scale of the participating dignitaries was expanded again, and the content was still this letter, and the object of discussion changed again, blurring into a broader "smart car". This time, within 72 hours, the search volume reached more than 17 million.
- In January of this year, the same basic content of the letter, but after the self-driving car, the words "and electric vehicles" were quietly added.
Based on a letter riddled with loopholes, the concept of self-driving cars is extended and confused: first into connected cars, then into smart cars, and finally into electric vehicles. The pertinence is getting stronger and stronger, and it also guides the public opinion to continue to rise.
What is the result of such a change?
Reporter: I heard about the negative information about China's electric vehicles, will you still buy them?
U.S. car owner: I'm in technology, and there's a lot of discussion around whether Chinese technology is safe, and if the investigation is approved and they figure out how to do it, I'll follow up.
U.S. car owners: I think it's important to be cautious about things that come from abroad.
We see that in this way, it has begun to raise concerns among the American public about the safety of electric vehicles in China.
Fact: Chinese cars have long been unable to enter the United States
Since the U.S. is so worried that Chinese electric vehicles will steal data, how many Chinese electric vehicles are there in the U.S.?
When we look at China's EV export data this year, we find that the number of passenger cars exported to the United States is almost negligible because of high tariffs and other sanctions.
Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers: It's almost zero, and I haven't heard of any company selling to the United States. In the early days, there were some electric buses, and at the passenger car level, the United States adjusted its policy in order to limit the export of our electric technology.
The same problem as the investigation of Pony.ai has arisen: the car is gone, how can we talk about the so-called stealing of data?
What exactly is the United States worried about?
Again, we look for clues in the database. These two paragraphs caught our attention.
This is a video of Raimondo's interview, and when it comes to the data collected by Chinese cars, the picture of the video points to BYD↓
This is a recent campaign speech by Trump, in which he will "impose 100% tariffs on Chinese cars produced in Mexico" as a bargaining chip for his campaign
BYD and Mexico, what is the relationship between this? We found BYD's latest financial report data and industrial layout, and such a message appeared: "BYD is expected to determine the location of the Mexican factory by the end of the year." ”
The information was released in late February. It was also at this time that the United States began to trumpet the threat of China's electric vehicles to national security. Is this a coincidence?
Professor John Quelch, former senior associate dean of Harvard Business School, who has long studied the relationship between China and the United States and Europe and China, gave his opinion: "The brands of Chinese electric vehicle companies are basically non-existent in the US market at present. Production in Mexico could be supplied to the U.S. market, which is obviously a good move from China's point of view, but the entire U.S. auto industry feels threatened overnight, and it is natural to have some precautions to be put in place to deal with this. ”
It turns out that the construction of factories by Chinese companies in Mexico, in the eyes of the United States, means that Chinese cars may be exported from Mexico to the United States, which has become a kind of crack to the current "strict defense".
Detective: The politicization of the economy is no longer an isolated case
The U.S. has gone to great lengths to confuse concepts and channel public concerns about data security to prevent Chinese electric vehicles from entering the U.S. market. And when we search for such means, Zhenhua Heavy Industries, Tiktok, Huawei, and familiar Chinese companies continue to appear. There are also Alstom of France in 2014 and Toshiba of Japan in 1987. As long as it was the "giant enterprise" in the world at that time, even if it was an ally of the United States, it was not spared.
However, we have seen that recently, various car giants have still expressed their intention to continue to cultivate the Chinese market, increase investment, and accelerate transformation.
Electric vehicles are a highly globalized industry, and only fair competition can lead to technological progress, and only open cooperation can achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
▌Source of this article: CCTV News WeChat public account (ID: cctvnewscenter)