China is trying to strangle the world’s solar panel industry 

China is moving to consolidate and exploit its position as world leader in solar power technologies, by restricting the export of key components. The move could deliver a severe blow to the European and American solar industries and is a stark warning about the dangers of over-dependence on Beijing for critical technologies of the future. It also illustrates the impact of China’s industrial-scale cyber theft. 

Beijing is reportedly looking to add raw materials and other vital items used in the manufacture of solar panels to a list of items that could be restricted in order to ‘help safeguard national security’ and require special permission for export. The list does not include the panels themselves, in which China dominates global supplies, thus tightening its grip on the market. 

The move comes almost nine years after a US grand jury indicted in absentia five agents of the People’s Liberation Army for hacking the computers of SolarWorld, then America’s biggest solar tech company, and stealing key know-how.