Everyday Economics Interview with Zheng Yongnian: The global new energy development has just begun, and the gap remains huge.

Each Daily Reporter | Zhang Hong    Each Daily Editor | Bi Luming

On March 22, the 2026 annual meeting of the China Development Forum will be held in Beijing.

As geopolitical games intensify, they bring new challenges to global energy cooperation. At a critical juncture when the global energy structure is accelerating its reshaping, it is worth thinking deeply about how to create and seize market opportunities for the development of new energy industries, and build an industrial ecosystem that is secure, resilient, and sustainable.

On site, in a discussion about issues such as the energy structure, Zheng Yongnian, Dean of the School of Public Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and a reporter from The Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as “NBD”) held a conversation.

(Zheng Yongnian answers questions from the reporter of The Daily Economic News; Zhang Hong of The Daily Economic News photo)

China’s energy layout has not only been right—it has also been done well.

NBD: What impact do current geopolitical conflicts have on reshaping the energy structure?

Zheng Yongnian: I believe that in terms of China’s energy planning, it has not only gotten the direction right—but also executed it well.

First, we successfully diversified traditional energy. Second, we also successfully developed new energy.

Previously, some conservative figures in the United States denied climate change and did not believe there is an energy crisis, while also trying to contain China’s new energy industry development. I think that, prompted by the energy problems triggered by the Iran situation, China and European countries can find more consensus and cooperation momentum along new energy development paths, further confirming the correctness of the new energy route. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, solar energy resources are inexhaustible, and energy inside the Earth is truly trivial compared with solar energy. Humanity should seek energy from the sun rather than obsessing over competing for traditional energy. The development direction China chose in its early years was extremely correct.

NBD: Where does China’s new energy technology currently stand on the global ladder?

Zheng Yongnian: In the new energy field, China is of course in the first tier. One reason the Trump administration abandoned new energy and shifted to traditional energy is that the United States has found it difficult to compete with China in that area. Looking at the current industrial landscape, even traditional auto powers such as Germany have turned as well. Previously, countries like Germany, the United States, and Japan formed natural monopolies by relying on traditional-energy vehicle industries; now, in the process of shifting to new energy, they instead need to seek cooperation with Chinese companies such as BYD.

Of course, we shouldn’t be complacent. Other countries are also making active arrangements—for example, Japan has also been laying out plans in hydrogen energy and hybrid power. Therefore, China must keep pushing technological innovation. But at the current stage of development, China’s new energy industry has indeed firmly secured its position as the global first-tier leader.

NBD: Recently, some domestic companies confirmed that Tesla plans to purchase China-made photovoltaic equipment. What do you think is the reason?

Zheng Yongnian: Because it’s inevitable.

First, China is a global leader in the photovoltaic industry. In fact, since humanity entered the internet era, the global industrial landscape has gradually evolved into one led by China and the United States. From the internet to emerging fields like artificial intelligence, technological development has mainly been concentrated in China and the United States. Other countries may participate to some extent, but their influence is relatively limited.

Why has the U.S. faced obstacles in development in some areas? The root cause is that it has massive entrenched interest groups at home. For years, the international community has been continuously discussing the problem of global economic structure imbalance. Starting from 2007 and 2008, people were discussing the products of economic imbalances, but even now this issue has still not been effectively resolved.

Why hasn’t it been effectively resolved? Because the U.S. is accustomed to blaming responsibility on other countries; in fact, it is its domestic entrenched interest groups that block reform.

That is precisely why the rise of the technology right has great significance. This group represents the interests of emerging capital, and advocates overcoming domestic entrenched interest groups through accelerationism (a set of ideas that seeks to rebuild society through technology), driving industrial transformation. Compared with that, China is one of the few countries in the world that has institutional advantages and the capacity for self-revolution.

China has a comparative advantage in AI application deployment

Zheng Yongnian believes that as long as technology does not peak, the economy will not peak.

**NBD: **Is the end of AI energy, top-tier talent, or applications?

Zheng Yongnian: These aspects need to develop in a coordinated way. However, at the end of the day, technology must be applied and deployed. Any technology that cannot be practically applied will eventually turn into a bubble. Recently, U.S. society has been discussing the risks of an artificial intelligence bubble. On the one hand, in every industrial revolution, when new technology first emerges, there will inevitably be overheating in investment. On the other hand, the key is to push the transformation of technology into real-world applications.

The core of deploying artificial intelligence lies in finding application scenarios, and that is exactly where China’s advantage lies. The United States does not have corresponding advantages in expanding application scenarios.

NBD: Is having an advantage because the market is big?

Zheng Yongnian: China not only has a huge market scale, but also a wide variety of application scenarios. Because the United States has already exited parts of the production and manufacturing stage for certain products, local application scenarios are lacking, so it can only look outward for application space. By comparison, within China, there are abundant application scenarios available for AI technologies.

The global gap in new energy remains huge

When discussing “anti-involution,” Zheng Yongnian pointed out that, on the one hand, China’s new energy industry does have intense internal competition—what is often called “involution.” But we need to distinguish the nature of “involution”: if it takes the form of vicious price competition, it should be avoided; if it manifests as diligent innovation and technological breakthroughs, then it is a positive phenomenon.

From the perspective of this energy crisis, the development of new energy across the world is still far from sufficient. Therefore, the key to “anti-involution” lies in how to rationally and orderly push production capacity to “go global.” In the process of “going global,” we should also avoid everyone rushing in. What the government focuses on rectifying is not benign competition, but that kind of development model where people swarm in and then scatter.

NBD: You just said the gap for new energy is still quite large. How much gap in terms of overall volume do you think there is for new energy right now?

Zheng Yongnian: Developing countries have a huge demand for new energy, and even the supply of new energy from developed economies such as Europe and the United States still falls far short of real needs. Although the concept of new energy was first proposed by Europe and the U.S., today the West blames China for “excess capacity,” which is in fact based on ideological bias and a stance of competitive disadvantage. From the perspective of objective demand, global new energy development is only just getting started, and the gap remains enormous.

Cover image source: Zhu Yu