The China problem<\/p>\n
But Starmer\u2019s critics \u2014\u00a0including those in the Trump administration itself \u2014\u00a0have a ready-made counter. <\/p>\n
The clean energy mission, they say, means Britain sleepwalking into dependence on a new energy hegemon \u2014\u00a0China, a country which dominates the supply chains for renewable energy and electric vehicles required by the U.K. and others if they are to wean their economies off fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
It was a point made bluntly by Trump\u2019s envoy to the London summit, Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary of international affairs at the U.S. Energy Department. \u201cThere are no wind turbines without concessions to or coercion from China,\u201d he told delegates.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a weak point in Labour\u2019s clean energy plan to which the government appears sensitive. This week Miliband bowed to pressure<\/a> from rival parties and his own backbenchers when he promised to amend legislation so that the new state-owned power company, GB Energy, is less exposed to slave labor in supply chains for solar panels. It was\u00a0a measure aimed squarely at China\u2019s production, which has been linked to forced labor in the Xinjiang region.<\/p>\n Political rivals spy an opportunity. Andrew Bowie, the Conservatives’ interim shadow energy secretary, wrote this week<\/a> that the \u201cideological pursuit of net zero\u201d \u00a0was driving the U.K. \u201cinto the arms of China.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowie did not limit his arguments to solar. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about one site, one sector, or one deal. It\u2019s a pattern,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAcross the board, net zero zealotry has opened the door to greater Chinese involvement in our energy infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n