THE Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) reported Friday that China now leads in research in 19 critical high-tech areas, compared to just four for the United States.
China has taken the lead in key military sciences, including hypersonic weapons, as well as key “green” technologies such as electric vehicles and battery production, where China is gradually increasing its already dominant market position .
ASPI studied some 2.2 million academic articles published between 2018 and 2022 to reach its conclusion, finding that China accounted for 80 percent of global research output, including 73.3 percent of “high-impact research outputs for Hypersonic Detection, Tracking and Characterization” and 56.9 percent research on underwater drones, including wireless underwater communications.
Competition was somewhat tighter in the hotly contested field of artificial intelligence (AI), but China still led in four of the six AI-related areas studied by ASPI, compared to two for the United States. United. China and the United States were roughly equal in research into quantum computing technologies.
Nikkei Asia note In early September, China is aggressively increasing its share of existing high-tech industries, including electric vehicles and batteries:
The presence of Chinese companies is particularly visible in the electric vehicle and related markets. Although Tesla had the largest share of the electric vehicle market in 2022, 18.9%, three Chinese automakers controlled a larger combined share, 27.7%. Tesla’s share that year was 3.4 percentage points lower than in 2021. BYD, meanwhile, grabbed the second-largest share, 11.5%, down from 6.9%. %.
Four of the top five producers of insulation for lithium-ion batteries, used in electric vehicles and other products, are Chinese companies, accounting for a combined share of 63%. Sinoma Science & Technology, which was not in the top five in 2021, ranks second with an 11% share.
In the lithium-ion battery market for electric vehicles, BYD increased its share from 7.7% to 14.4%. BYD and other Chinese manufacturers together achieved a share of more than 60%.
China is now “dominant” in the electric vehicle supply chain and is opening electric vehicle and battery factories around the world, from Brazil to Germany.
Nikkei Asia said it had become virtually impossible for Western countries to “reduce their dependence on Chinese supply chains for electric vehicles and other products.” Almost no one talks about “decoupling” from China anymore, and even strategies aimed at “reducing risks” by developing alternatives to China have become very modest in the markets that China most clearly dominates, including that of electric vehicles.
China fired some warning shots at its Western clients last week, denouncing a European Commission (EC) investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles, calling them “protectionist” and a threat to economic relations. The EC fears that China will use its subsidies to flood global markets with its electric cars at artificially low prices.
“China will pay close attention to the EU’s protectionist tendencies and follow-up actions, and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said, threatening to use the immense leverage that gives it its domination over supply. chain against the Europeans if they take punitive measures.
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