For some time, the United States has been seeking to engage with China, while on the other hand, it has continued to suppress and sanction China's related industries. The fierce competition between China and the United States in high-tech industries is essentially a war without gunpowder. Trade wars, technology wars, financial wars, ideological wars... Americans call it "hybrid warfare".
Recently, Bloomberg reported that the United States is urging its allies to tighten restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, and the United States has also asked Japanese companies to restrict the export of some high-end chemicals used in chip production to China, and also asked German optical companies to stop exporting key components to China. The United States even asked the Dutch lithography giant ASML to stop providing services and repairs to the semiconductor equipment purchased by China before, which is shameless to the point. However, China, as the largest semiconductor market, has also made America's allies bear a huge price due to restrictions on Chinese semiconductors. But in the field of chips, China is still in the catch-up stage after all, they have an advantage, and the United States allows them to restrict, and they will still be obedient. But the U.S. also wants to rein in other key areas, and these allies are reluctant to follow because it would mean killing themselves.
Recently, the Biden administration in the United States has been pushing to eliminate China's clean energy subsidies, but allies are reluctant to follow. South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Dek Geun complained that it was nearly impossible for any electric vehicle manufacturer to bypass China to receive subsidies from the U.S. government due to China's dominance of key battery materials, and he warned the U.S. government that the entire electric vehicle subsidy system would collapse if relevant policies were not adjusted in time. The U.S. subsidizes its own electric vehicle companies a lot, but foreign companies hardly receive subsidies, creating an uneven playing field that makes these companies unable to receive subsidies and forces them to move their industrial chains to the United States, which is the goal of the United States.
Previously, Biden introduced the "Inflation Reduction Act", saying that it was to eliminate "relevant foreign entities" in the US electric vehicle supply chain, which was considered to be aimed at China, but China did not react much, but Japan, South Korea, and the European Union complained first, because almost no companies can bypass the Chinese supply chain. For example, Chinese companies control more than 99% of the global market for battery-grade graphite and 69% of the market for synthetic graphite for battery anodes. It is not a pity that China does not use these advantages, and last year China also announced export restrictions on graphite-related items. It's a warning that if anyone follows the U.S. in restricting China's new energy industry, then the export restrictions will be aimed at whom.
Sanctioning China in the field of new energy is basically looking for death. The new energy industry in China has survived the subsidy to live, catch up with the stage, is now relying on technological progress, the advantages of the industrial chain has reduced the cost of electricity to a level that is difficult to surpass, if Europe and the United States want to rely on subsidies to catch up, it is basically a fool's dream, how much money will be wasted, the market will dominate everything. The point is that the cost of running their entire society is too high and too high, and that subsidy is not enough to see, and the United States certainly knows this. The United States has roped in its allies to restrict China in the fields of new energy and chips, which is more like a conspiracy against its younger brothers. In the name of sanctioning China, it wants to bring the emerging industries of its allies, including new energy vehicles and high-end chips, to the domestic industrial chain of the United States or under the direct control of American capital. It seems that it wants to curb China's emerging industries, but in fact, it is to forcibly snatch a whole set of emerging industry systems from its allies to confront China. Elephants fight and trample a large patch of ants.