Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

China's green tech companies - world-leading solar, battery and electric vehicle companies - have ramped up their foreign investment plans in recent years, pledging more than $210 billion since 2022, Johns Hopkins University's Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab said in a report, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. 

Bloomberg said that China's world-leading clean tech investments have brought down costs and the country has become the driving force behind the global energy transition. Yet, this situation has raised so-called concerns about "over-reliance" on China in some countries, as well as "environmental and working conditions at some overseas facilities," according to the report. 

The "over-reliance on China" narrative, hyped by some politicians and media outlets in Western countries, conflates geopolitics with economics. In reality, the rapid global rollout of solar, wind and batteries over the past few years has been powered by scale, cost declines, and finance - where Chinese industrial capacity and overseas investment have made great contributions. 

China accounts for about one-third of global clean-energy investment. China's share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels, such as polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules, exceeds 80 percent, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

As the US government steps back from its green policies and Europe struggles with regulatory gridlock, China has remained unwaveringly committed to its efforts in clean-energy development. While robustly boosting technological innovation and driving down costs by building manufacturing and projects at enormous scale, China has expanded overseas investments - especially in developing countries - contributing to local sustainable growth and global climate efforts.

The unfounded accusations by some Western politicians about so-called "over-reliance" and their views colored by geopolitics are extremely unfair to China's development and contributions in clean energy. Unlike Western countries, which often attach political conditions to cooperation with developing and emerging economies, China's cooperation projects are advanced strictly in line with economic logic and market principles, on the basis of mutual willingness. This approach has delivered win-win outcomes and has been positively recognized.

China's rapidly expanding overseas clean-energy sector investments highlight its firm commitment to actively participating in and driving the global green transition. From an environmental perspective, China's large-scale green investments have significantly accelerated global carbon reduction efforts, helping many countries achieve their climate goals. Economically, these projects have created substantial employment opportunities in host countries and spurred upgrades in local supply chains and manufacturing capacity.

Some Western media outlets' claims of "concerns" about "environmental and labor conditions at some Chinese overseas clean-energy facilities" contradict the facts. Many host countries have publicly welcomed these investments for providing affordable renewable power, jobs and infrastructure upgrades. Chinese companies increasingly adopt international environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and align with local regulations. 

In its 2025 Guidelines on Corporate Overseas Integrity and Compliance, the Ministry of Commerce explicitly called on enterprises to implement ESG principles such as those advocated by the UN Global Compact, and to strengthen environmental protection and social responsibility.

It is precisely due to geopolitical thinking that some Western countries in recent years have imposed unreasonable restrictions on investments by Chinese clean-energy enterprises. These political motivations often clash with economically rational global green-energy goals, limiting cooperation and raising costs to clean-energy deployment.

Politicizing supply chains has clear economic costs for the green transition in Western countries. For starters, imposing trade barriers and investment curbs raise equipment costs and disrupt production processes. Moreover, fragmentation of markets hinders global green development: smaller and duplicated factories in some countries cannot match the cost advantage of integrated production.

Clean-energy industrial policies worldwide should focus on creating fair and cooperative frameworks that expand manufacturing, transfer technology, and mobilize finance - because climate action will falter if ideological disputes about "over-reliance" displace pragmatic cooperation that actually produces clean energy and addresses climate change.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn