October 30, 2023 | Foreign Policy
Are Chinese Battery Companies the Next Huawei?
Electric cars, charging networks, and batteries made in China come with critical security threats.
October 30, 2023 | Foreign Policy
Are Chinese Battery Companies the Next Huawei?
Electric cars, charging networks, and batteries made in China come with critical security threats.
Excerpt
The Biden administration wants half of all new cars sold in the United States to be electric by 2030. Meanwhile, the European Union has taken even bolder steps, mandating that all new cars and vans sold after 2035 emit zero emissions. Taken together, that’s good news—for China.
Today, companies with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control nearly half of the global supply of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. While there is certainly merit in decarbonizing the transportation sector, a hasty embrace of EVs would do more than cement the market positions of Beijing’s battery behemoths. It could also expose the United States and European nations to dangerous cyber threats, similar to how Chinese technology giant Huawei’s unchecked expansion paved the way for China to gain access to critical Western telecommunications networks.
Craig Singleton is a senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former U.S. diplomat. Twitter: @CraigMSingleton.