In “China’s Net Zero Advantage,” Michael Doran and Brenda Shaffer argue that the Western climate movement has become an unwitting partner in Beijing’s industrial strategy.
China remains the world’s largest emitter and burned more coal in 2024 than the rest of the world combined, yet it draws little of the scrutiny that climate activists reserve for Western energy and manufacturing.
The result is an asymmetry the authors sum up bluntly: “China adds. The West subtracts.” Doran and Shaffer trace how Chinese-linked funding, elite cultivation of Western intermediaries, and opposition to nuclear power all serve to keep the West dependent and constrained while Beijing’s industrial base keeps growing.
