Tech Won't Save Us How China’s Renewable Push Upends Geopolitics w/ Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay
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Aug 28, 2025 Kate Mackenzie, an adjunct fellow at Macquarie University, and Tim Sahay, co-director at Johns Hopkins University, dive into the shifting tides of global geopolitics driven by China's renewable energy initiatives. They discuss how China's vast investments in green technology could revolutionize sustainable development, leaving fossil fuel-dependent nations in the dust. The episode examines the BRICS nations' potential in redefining power dynamics, alongside the U.S.'s struggle to adapt amidst China's fast-paced transitions in energy strategy and electric vehicle production.
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Strategic Clean-Tech Development
- China targeted clean tech as a strategic development opportunity rather than primarily as climate leadership.
- The state picked emerging sectors where incumbents were weak and poured in capital, R&D, and planning to build national capability.
Coordinated State-Led Scale-Up
- China built a full-fledged development model by aligning capital, land, labor, and human capital behind chosen sectors.
- State coordination plus industrial policy enabled a rapid reversal from Western dominance to Chinese dominance in clean-energy factories.
The Domestic 'Gym' That Forged EV Champions
- China created an intensely competitive domestic EV market with many firms to accelerate learning and cost reduction.
- That domestic 'gym' produced lean, globally competitive EV makers able to undercut incumbents abroad.