- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 48,543
- Location
- London
- Car
- 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
There appears to be little benefit to western societies in handing China, who dominate EV battery production worldwide, all the cards under the guise of environmental concerns.
‘Battery arms race’: how China has monopolised the electric vehicle industry
Chinese companies dominate mining, battery and manufacturing sectors, and amid human rights concerns, Europe and the US are struggling to keep pacewww.theguardian.com
You raise an interesting point. And, of course, some people will point-out that Western Europe's dependency on Russian gas was mistake.
The counter argument, however, is that without Russian dependency on gas revenues from the West, war would have happened much sooner.
Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999, just 8 years after the Soviet Union collapsed, and in the same year the Putin first came into power.
And yet, Putin did not annexe Crimea until 2014, and only invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Therefore I, for one, think that creating reciprocal inter-dependencies (which is all part of globalisation) actually increases international stability.
Globalisation has the benefit of allowing each country to specialise and do what it does best, rather than each country attempting to become a 'Jack of all trades" for fear of being dependent on others.
The key, however, is reciprocity. Let China manufacture everything the West needs, and as long as their population's livelihood depends on what the West has to offer in return, it's a winning formula. War with China (or China invading Taiwan) becomes much less likely this way.