File photo: VCG

A set of new rules China proposes to "restrict exports of key solar manufacturing technology" threatens to disrupt the US' solar ambition, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

What the report mentioned is dozens of potential revisions to China's export control list that were published in December to solicit public comment. The over-hyping by the American media and their twisting of the facts mirrors the anxiety that China's prominence in making solar panels has caused in the US.

It should be noted that the rules adjustment is a routine move based on new development in international science and technology cooperation, which is in accordance with international practice. It does not target specific industries, let alone any country in the world.

In fact, it is the US government's approach to politicize and weaponize technology, economic and trade issues that will truly endanger the US' photovoltaic industry.

The US has been recklessly suppressing and restricting the development of China's photovoltaic industry by disrupting normal economic and trade exchanges. In December 2021, the US fabricated "forced labor" lies and signed a law restricting solar panels and other key renewable resource equipment from China. After the law came into effect in June last year, it seriously disrupted the photovoltaic industry and supply chain, and American companies have also suffered from it.

For a long time, based on lies, the US has repeatedly abused export controls, seriously disrupting the normal trade of photovoltaic products between China and the US, seriously violating market rules and international economic and trade rules, seriously damaging the stability of the global photovoltaic industry chain supply chain and undermining global efforts to combat climate change. In turn, as the Wall Street Journal reported, the act delays its attempt to build up a domestic solar supply chain.

US photovoltaic power generation components are highly dependent on China. Chinese companies control an estimated 80 percent of the global supply chain for solar manufacturing and produce nearly half of all the equipment needed to manufacture solar panels and other components, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimated, The Wall Street Journal said.

The US last year passed legislation that encourages the build-out of solar-manufacturing facilities at home, and companies have unveiled billions of dollars in factory investment as a result. 

However, the US import barriers could slow the transition to renewable energy that the Biden administration is trying to push. America's clean energy economy is being hampered by the US government's trade policies.

As trade restrictions on China hinder the import of key low-cost spare parts and materials for producing photovoltaic equipment, the new installed capacity of solar energy in the US in 2022 is estimated to be 23 percent lower than the previous year, according to media reports. 

David Carroll, head of renewables at the North American unit of French utility Engie, said solar panel costs have risen 30 to 40 percent due to the US' trade restrictions on China as well as other supply-chain issues, The Wall Street Journal reported in last August.

The US' unreasonable suppression of the Chinese photovoltaic industry has now proved to be a typical case of "shooting itself in the foot." US restrictions suppressing China's photovoltaic industry is the culprit that hurts its own solar energy development ambitions. It is hoped that the US can abandon its seriously flawed policies that harms others and does not benefit itself, either.

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