China’s dominance in the global electric vehicle supply chain poses geopolitical risks to the West, according to The Henry Jackson Society’s latest report.
The paper, published today, highlights the Chinese Communist Party’s dominance in the electric vehicle supply chain including its management of most of the production process, refinement of critical minerals, assembly of cells, and production of anodes and cathodes.
The author, Sam Ashworth-Hayes, evaluates the intersection between the Chinese state’s central role in the electric vehicle supply chain and the UK’s progress towards its aim for every new car sold after 2035 to be ‘zero emission’. He also uncovers the areas in which Chinese components infiltrate the UK’s electric vehicle supply chain.
The report explores how Beijing has previously leveraged its economic power as a means to coercive diplomacy.
In response, the paper analyses policy options to reduce the Free World’s reliance on China which involves its serious consideration of a transition away from dependence on China and towards the development of alternative mineral supply sources.
The report concludes by weighing the UK’s new Critical Minerals Strategy to ultimately rationalise how the UK and Western world can best navigate the future of the electric vehicle supply chain without being undermined by the Chinese Communist Party.