The photo taken on September 1, 2024 shows the Shouhang High-Tech 100-megawatt molten salt tower solar thermal power plant in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province. Photo: VCG

More than two thousand years ago, atop the walls of Syracuse in Sicily, Archimedes was said to have directed soldiers to raise polished bronze shields. According to legend, these reflective surfaces concentrated sunlight into deadly beams, igniting the sails of Roman warships.

When I stood on a platform to see the vast array of heliostats in the Gobi Desert near Dunhuang, where 12,000 mirrors track the sun with millimeter-level precision, it suddenly struck me that this ancient Western myth is being constructed on the eastern edge of the world, but on a much grander, more transformative scale. 

This reflection was inspired by China's recently concluded two sessions. Deputies and political advisors discussed the growing role of solar thermal energy, which brought me back to the legend of Archimedes.

I had once been among the millions of visitors awestruck by the murals of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang. But it wasn't until a local friend drove me 20 kilometers westward to a vantage point overlooking a sea of mirrors converging on a 260-meter-tall solar tower that I truly felt the pulse of Dunhuang, an old and new model of Eastern civilization. 

This super mirror power station, built by Shouhang High-Tech Energy, spans 780 hectares, equivalent to over 1,000 standard soccer fields. Each heliostat, with its 115-square-meter reflective surface, captures the sun's image. 

The mirrors are laid out in precise mathematical arrays: the outermost circles ripple outward like waves, while the inner circles form dense, honeycomb-like patterns. 

At noon, sunlight converges at the top of the tower, creating a focal point of heat that reaches 565°C. By nightfall, the stored heat in massive molten salt tanks continues to drive turbines, generating 390 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually. 

And therein lies the essential difference between the ancient myth and modern technology: While Archimedes' mirrors only unleashed momentary destruction, China's mirrors generate enduring vitality.

On the silvered surface of the molten salt storage tanks, I saw the reflection of a global energy revolution. The Dunhuang solar plant produces enough green electricity each year to power local households, freeing them from coal dust. Even more remarkable is that this entirely homegrown project has spurred innovation across 600 upstream and downstream enterprises, weaving a symphony of energy transformation.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Washington's policymakers seem trapped in a Western war mentality - clinging to outdated paradigms of competition and dominance. 

Canada's retaliatory tariffs on electricity exports to the US have increased costs for American consumers and highlighted the vulnerability of the US grid, especially in the Northeast, which depends on Canadian hydropower due to insufficient domestic capacity.

This is from a nation that once pioneered alternating current and is now dependent on imports to stabilize its grid. It's a stark contrast to the divergent paths China and the US are taking in renewable energy development. Even more ironic is that the US has imposed high tariffs under Section 301 on Chinese photovoltaic components, yet this has done little to slow China's progress. Reports show China hits 277.17 GW of new PV installations in 2024. China's cumulative installed solar capacity hit 886.66 GW at the end of 2024, setting a new historical record. 

Standing on the observation deck in Dunhuang, I suddenly grasped the more profound metaphor of the energy revolution. As sunlight falls equally on all corners of the earth, any human-constructed technological barrier is little more than a line drawn in the sand. The US ban on Huawei's 5G technology did not stop China from making breakthroughs in quantum communication; semiconductor restrictions have driven China to explore more independent paths in artificial intelligence.

As twilight descended, the mirrors in Dunhuang began to pivot, catching the last rays of sunlight and directing them toward the solar tower. This reveals the essence of the race between civilizations: actual progress is never achieved by extinguishing the light of others but by becoming a brighter source of light yourself. 

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate whether to ban Chinese batteries, the mirrors in Dunhuang quietly execute nearly 10 million precise adjustments to track the sun. In this "mirror array" of renewable energy, every nation will ultimately see a reflection of its own future.

The author is a senior editor with the People's Daily, and currently a senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn. Follow him on X @dinggangchina