Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, will launch a new anti-subsidy investigation into China’s fast-growing and increasingly dominant wind turbine sector on Tuesday, as POLITICO’s China Watcher exclusively reported.
Europe was once a leader in renewable energy sources, but China’s rapid development since 2018 has inflicted billions in losses on its major wind power players, including Denmark’s Vestas and Germany’s Siemens Gamesa, forcing them to make drastic cost reductions.
The EU wants to avoid the mistake it made over the past decade, when Chinese solar panel makers virtually killed their European competitors. Today’s wind turbine playbook is indeed “all too familiar” to European policymakers, said one European diplomat, granted anonymity to discuss the impending policy announcement.
Years of inaction on EU domestic industrial policy – coupled with a policy of openness to green technologies – have led to an influx of Chinese solar panels onto the EU market, despite concerns over the materials from the western province of Xinjiang, where the United Nations has revealed human rights violations against the Uyghur community.
Then comes the next big thing: electric vehicles. Unfazed by the European Commission’s ongoing investigation into state subsidies for these Chinese-made electric vehicles, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reassured China’s electric vehicle executives during a visit to Paris on Monday that their market gains were deserved.
“The rapid development of Chinese electric vehicle enterprises does not depend on competitive advantage through subsidies, but on sustained technological innovation, complete industrial and supply chains and full market competition,” he said. Wang said during a meeting with electric vehicle bosses.
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