By The Craig Bushon Show Media Team
The Truth Is Not Hate Speech
The story of the so-called “green transition” is being told in glossy press releases, global summits, and political soundbites that make it sound inevitable and even noble. But beneath that polished surface lies a hard, uncomfortable truth: this isn’t just a competition between technologies or industries. It’s a struggle over control, dependency, and strategic leverage—and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is playing that game with ruthless precision.
While Western nations debate emissions targets, infrastructure timelines, and subsidy frameworks, the CCP has been building something far more powerful: a chokehold on the global electric vehicle (EV) supply chain. And it’s not just winning—it’s dominating.
This isn’t a natural outcome of free-market competition. It’s the result of state-backed strategy, massive infrastructure investment, forced labor, energy manipulation, and deliberate Western policy failures. What’s unfolding right now will define not just the automotive market—but the geopolitical balance of power for decades to come.
1. China’s Strategic Plan: Control the Entire Supply Chain
When Western governments began pushing aggressive EV mandates, China was already years ahead. It didn’t just invest in making electric cars; it invested in everything that makes those cars possible:
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Mining and refining of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements.
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Battery cell manufacturing and component processing.
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Gigantic industrial-scale battery assembly plants.
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Low-cost labor and government-backed subsidies to undercut global competition.
China’s dominance didn’t emerge overnight or solely through state-backed economic warfare. A significant part of its lead comes from decades of strategic investment in mining and processing infrastructure, often while Western nations were delaying projects through lengthy permitting processes, regulatory hurdles, or policy indecision.
For example, while China now controls roughly 70–80 percent of the world’s lithium refining capacity and 77 percent of global battery cell manufacturing, its share of upstream lithium mining has grown more gradually—from about 12 percent in 2019 to around 21 percent in 2025. That’s not total control, but it’s enough to exert enormous leverage over the entire EV supply chain because processing and refining are the chokepoints.
Efforts like the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States are designed to diversify these supply chains and reshore strategic industries, but China’s head start is measured in decades, not years. While the West debated, China built.
This wasn’t accidental. It was the CCP’s long game. And now, as nations rush to meet arbitrary EV deadlines, Beijing holds the keys to the kingdom.
2. The Unfair Advantage: Forced Labor, State Subsidies & No Accountability
Western automakers are competing on an uneven playing field.
Companies in Europe and North America face strict labor standards, environmental regulations, and rising energy costs. In contrast, Chinese EV manufacturers operate under a state-controlled system that uses forced labor, lax environmental enforcement, and direct government subsidies to drive costs down to levels no Western company can match.
Take BYD Company—now one of the world’s largest EV makers. Its meteoric rise didn’t come from “market magic.” It came from massive state support and access to resources Western firms must purchase at market price. China’s state-owned banks pour billions into “strategic industries,” giving companies like BYD an enormous pricing advantage.
Then there’s the labor issue. Reports have documented forced labor in parts of the supply chain, particularly in the production of polysilicon (used in EV batteries and solar panels) and in mining regions linked to the CCP. These are not the same labor standards Western automakers are required to uphold.
You cannot have a “fair competition” when one side is bound by the rule of law and the other is ruled by the Party.
3. The German Example: How Energy Policy Weakened an Industrial Powerhouse
Few places demonstrate this more clearly than Germany. Once Europe’s undisputed industrial engine, Germany is now facing spiraling energy prices, supply chain disruptions, and an auto sector in crisis.
Why? Because of short-sighted energy and climate policies.
Germany shut down reliable nuclear and coal power plants too quickly in the name of clean energy, while over-relying on renewables that are not yet capable of sustaining industrial demand on their own. This self-inflicted energy crisis has made manufacturing in Germany more expensive than in almost any competing market.
Meanwhile, China powers its factories with a mix of cheap coal, state-controlled energy pricing, and weak environmental standards. The result is simple: China can build cheaper, faster, and in higher volume.
German automakers like Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz Group, and BMW Group are being forced into an EV race they can’t win on cost. And as a result, Germany’s automotive crown is beginning to slip.
This isn’t just about EVs. It’s about industrial survival.
4. EU Mandates + China’s Leverage = A Perfect Trap
Brussels set 2035 as the year when new internal combustion engines would be banned in the European Union. That political decision—made without a serious plan for energy security, infrastructure build-out, or consumer readiness—created a perfect storm.
European automakers now have to rapidly electrify their fleets, build new factories, and secure raw materials they no longer control. And who controls those materials? China.
In effect, EU policy has handed China leverage over Europe’s most valuable industry. Even if European manufacturers wanted to compete, they’re forced to buy batteries and critical components from their biggest geopolitical rival.
It’s like entering a boxing match where the referee, the ring, and the gloves are all owned by your opponent.
5. Consumer Behavior Is the Wild Card
While bureaucrats and party officials shape the rules, consumers still hold enormous power. Right now, the average buyer isn’t fully on board with the EV timeline being dictated from above.
Surveys across Europe and the U.S. consistently show:
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Consumers remain concerned about cost, charging availability, and range.
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EV demand is slowing as subsidies disappear and prices remain high.
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Hybrids and efficient combustion vehicles remain popular alternatives.
China doesn’t have this problem domestically. The CCP can mandate what gets built and sold. Western governments can’t. That gives Beijing yet another strategic advantage in the short term—but it also makes the Western consumer the unpredictable variable that could disrupt this entire agenda.
If consumers refuse to buy into the timeline, the entire top-down EV plan begins to unravel at the market level—regardless of political pressure.
6. Control of Minerals = Control of the Future
The EV race isn’t about cars. It’s about who controls the minerals.
Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and rare earth elements are the new oil. Whoever controls their production and refinement controls the geopolitical high ground. And right now, that’s China.
For example:
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China refines more than 60 percent of the world’s lithium.
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It processes over 80 percent of rare earth elements used in EVs.
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It dominates cobalt supply chains through partnerships in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where labor abuses are widespread.
While the West debates subsidies, China has quietly locked down the supply. And this isn’t a position it plans to share. This is a strategic stranglehold, not a business model.
7. Forced March vs. Real Innovation
Real technological revolutions thrive on competition and innovation. The forced EV transition, as it’s currently structured in the West, is anything but that.
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Mandates dictate what technology must win.
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Subsidies artificially support industries that aren’t self-sustaining.
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Consumers are told what to buy rather than persuaded by value.
Meanwhile, Chinese EV companies are expanding aggressively into Europe, Latin America, and soon the U.S., backed by low costs, state subsidies, and a full grip on the upstream supply chain.
This isn’t a fair race—it’s a strategic takeover.
8. The National Security Angle Everyone Ignores
If the West allows this trend to continue, the consequences go far beyond the auto industry. Imagine a future where:
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China controls the majority of energy storage technology.
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Western nations are dependent on Chinese-made batteries for transportation, grid storage, and national infrastructure.
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Any geopolitical conflict gives Beijing the power to cut off or manipulate supply.
This isn’t hypothetical. It’s the exact playbook China has already used with pharmaceuticals, solar panels, and rare earths.
An EV fleet dependent on Chinese supply chains isn’t a clean energy revolution—it’s strategic dependence wrapped in a green ribbon.
8.5. The Unseen Battlefield: Energy as a Weapon of War
For many, it may be difficult to fully grasp what’s happening, but make no mistake—this is not just an economic competition. It is a strong indicator that World War III has already begun, just not in the way the world has seen before.
The push for global EV adoption—driven and dominated by the CCP—was not simply about climate goals. It was a strategic move to put tremendous pressure on the West, and specifically the United States, which possesses a super-abundance of fossil fuels that has long been a pillar of its economic and geopolitical strength.
By driving a transition away from oil, natural gas, and coal—without the infrastructure to replace it—China is effectively pushing the U.S. to weaken its own energy advantage. America is being maneuvered into abandoning cheap, domestically controlled energy for supply chains and technologies that are controlled overseas. That shift doesn’t just touch energy policy—it ripples through the entire economy, raising costs for manufacturing, transportation, and household energy use.
While the United States hasn’t built a meaningful coal-fired power plant or nuclear power facility in decades, China has built well over a thousand and counting. These coal-fired power plants serve one purpose: to fuel its own industrial engine while keeping energy cheap and stable. Meanwhile, the U.S. is being pushed toward a grid that is less reliable, more expensive, and increasingly dependent on the very nation setting the strategic trap.
This is not accidental. It’s part of a broader geopolitical play. Energy is being used as a weapon—not through bombs or tanks, but through economic dependency, grid control, and supply chain dominance.
9. How We Got Here: Western Naivety and Policy Blindness
China didn’t outplay the West overnight. It outplayed it while the West was congratulating itself on setting climate targets.
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Western leaders prioritized virtue signaling over energy security.
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They shut down stable power sources without having replacements ready.
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They handed China the mineral supply chain while talking about “leadership.”
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And they let ideology, not market reality, dictate automotive policy.
This was not an accident. It was a policy failure decades in the making.
10. Breaking the Chokehold: What Must Be Done
If the West wants to avoid a permanent position of economic dependence on Beijing, the path forward is clear—and it won’t be easy.
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Rebuild Energy Independence
Invest in stable, reliable energy sources—including nuclear—to reduce manufacturing costs and stabilize grids. -
Diversify Supply Chains
Open and secure critical mineral production in friendly nations. Stop relying on China for the raw materials that power the future. -
Rein in Mandates
Replace rigid EV deadlines with technology-neutral strategies that let innovation—not politics—determine what wins. -
Reshore and Friend-shore Manufacturing
Build battery and component production capacity domestically or with allied nations. -
Leverage Consumer Power
Trust the market to drive adoption at a pace that reflects real demand, not bureaucratic fantasy. -
Confront Forced Labor Head-On
Ban imports of materials tied to forced labor and hold companies accountable for transparent supply chains.
This is not a “green vs. not green” issue. It’s about sovereignty, economic strength, and national security.
11. A Wake-Up Call for Germany—and the West
Germany stands at the epicenter of this crisis because it made itself vulnerable. It dismantled its energy base, accepted rigid EU mandates, and ignored the growing CCP grip on supply chains.
But this isn’t just Germany’s problem. It’s Europe’s. It’s America’s. It’s the free world’s. If China controls the EV future, it won’t just dominate an industry—it will control the arteries of modern transportation, energy storage, and strategic infrastructure.
That’s not a clean-energy transition. That’s a strategic power shift.
Conclusion: The Future Is Still Ours—If We Take It Back
This isn’t just a car story. It’s a sovereignty story.
Because behind every battery, every charging station, and every energy policy lies a question far bigger than transportation. It’s a question about who holds power. Who controls the resources that keep nations running. Who sets the terms of economic growth, industrial capacity, and national defense.
If one nation dominates the energy and transportation backbone of the free world, then every mile driven, every factory built, and every technological breakthrough becomes subject to its leverage. Dependence isn’t just a weakness—it’s a strategic liability.
Sovereignty means the ability to power your nation without asking permission. It means having the industrial muscle to build what your people need, on your own terms. It means controlling the flow of energy, minerals, and technology that underpin every modern economy.
And saying that out loud isn’t fearmongering—it’s telling the truth. And the truth is not hate speech. It’s a warning. It’s a call to leadership. It’s a demand for accountability from those who have allowed foreign interests to shape the future of America’s energy, industry, and independence.
This battle over EV supply chains isn’t just about who sells more cars. It’s about who writes the rules for the next century. And if the West doesn’t reclaim that ground, it won’t just lose an industry—it will surrender a cornerstone of its freedom.
— The Craig Bushon Show Media Team
