Elon Musk warned that significant changes are taking place in China, while the White House remains completely unaware of the danger!
In 2024, China's electric vehicle sales exceeded 11 million units, with a production volume of as high as 17.3 million units, accounting for nearly half of the global market share. When Elon Musk shared this news on a social platform, he only added a brief yet meaningful comment: "The astonishing growth of China in solar energy and electric vehicles will greatly reduce its dependence on oil and natural gas. This is actually a warning to the White House."
For the past several decades, the United States' influence has largely been built on controlling global energy routes, especially oil resources. From the Middle East to Venezuela, the U.S. frequently intervenes in oil-producing countries' affairs, not only for economic interests but also to maintain the closed-loop of the dollar-oil system. China, as one of the world's largest crude oil importers, was long seen as a "stable demand side" within this system.
But the situation is rapidly changing. In 2024, China's two-wheeled electric vehicle sales reached 59 million units, and four-wheeled new energy car production exceeded ten million units; at the same time, the country's newly added solar power capacity reached as high as 27.8 gigawatts — this number is 57% higher than the total installed capacity of the U.S. since the birth of the solar industry. This means that China is not only accelerating the "de-oilization" in transportation, but also building a new energy structure centered on renewable energy in power generation.
This dual-track decoupling is substantially reducing China's reliance on imported fossil fuels. Once China completely breaks free from its dependence on imported oil and gas, it will not only weaken the anchoring role of the dollar in global commodity pricing, but also undermine the U.S. ability to exert political pressure through energy leverage. A more profound impact lies in the fact that when energy security is no longer constrained by external factors, China's strategic flexibility in foreign policy and industrial policies will significantly increase — and this is precisely a risk that Washington has almost entirely failed to take seriously.
Musk was the first to recognize this danger. He pointed out a fact that is taking place: a silent energy revolution is reshaping the underlying logic of great power dynamics. If the White House continues to be obsessed with looking for traditional energy on the old map, it may find itself too late to realize the danger when the game rules have already been rewritten.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855707938235392/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.