by Hans Chen | April 21st 2011
The Cold War is already part of our history textbook. For the past 20 years, the Americans have lived their lives without having to think about the nemesis, Soviet Union.
Life is good, right?
In 2000, at a time when Americans were enjoying prosperity and innovation, a high school teacher asked his American Government class, “which country do you think will become our next ‘nemesis’?” The flurry of answers included Germany, Japan, a “Unified Europe” and even Russia.
“Let me tell you what. It will be China,” the teacher said.
Sitting in the front row, I was not the only student who doubted that statement in the classroom. But after 11 years, it’s probable that no one would have any doubt in that statement. China has become a monster and we all know it. Moreover, unlike the Soviet Union, China is embracing capitalism in a totalitarian way, making the Chinese version of capitalism more efficient, in some ways, than the American version.
Just recently China announced its 12th Five-Year Plan, emphasizing cleantech more than ever. 70 billion watts of wind power, 5 billion watts of solar power, 11.4% non-fossil-fuel energy generation by 2015, 40%~50% reduction in CO2 emission…the list goes on and on. Also, China invested roughly $54.4 billion in cleantech in 2010, 40% more than the US did.
I have to agree with what President Obama said earlier this year, “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” From a cleantech perspective, it is very clear to see the urgency here: China is coming hard in cleantech, what should America do?
Is China really THAT into cleantech?
Ever since the environment and global climate issues took over the headlines, doing something related to cleantech has become “the right thing”. “Saving the earth” is a perfect slogan to drive passionate college students and young investors to devote their time and money. But is that really the Chinese government wants to do, saving the planet?
Let’s put it into this way: bad guys who want to defeat Superman would practically do anything to grab a piece of kryptonite. If US were Superman in this analogy, then cleantech might just be the kryptonite that the Chinese discovered (and they’re both “green”, coincidence?). It is very obvious that the Chinese government is not on the same page with Green Peace and Sierra Club when it comes to protecting the environment, as pollution is beyond out-of-control in many industrialized regions in China.
Long story short, it has become clear that the Chinese government is pushing for the development of cleantech (especially renewable energy) not only because it’s a good sport, but also because the Chinese know that current political circumstance in America will not allow the US to pick up a fast pace in the cleantech competition, thus giving China a chance to “beat” the Americans.
China was left behind when industrial revolution occurred in Europe. China was again left behind when information revolution took place in Silicon Valley. This time, it seems like the Chinese is tired of being left behind.
With a totalitarian government, China is able to skip the democracy part when making big decisions. Many people view democracy as the reason why the US is falling behind in cleantech because it slows down the pace of making decisions.
So…life isn’t as good as we thought?
I personally don’t believe that democracy can be an obstacle here. When I see the statement “democracy is ‘slowing down’ cleantech development”, I think it is only an illusion. Europe’s success in cleantech development would simply prove this statement wrong. In common perception, the Europeans at large have a better sense of urgency to save the planet. I wouldn’t deny that. But I also think the Europeans do have some idea about using cleantech as kryptonite, too, trying to take back the driver’s seat that it lost to the US after the World War I.
To summarize in my analogy, when it comes to cleantech, Europe is about 80% saving-the-earth and 20% kryptonite, and China is about 20% saving-the-earth and 80% kryptonite. They are both pretty successful as of today.
I am not suggesting that the US should start searching for its own kryptonite. The US should, however, really start making cleantech NOT kryptonite by educating people that cleantech is a billion-dollar industry rather than an economy killer, and prove that cleantech actually CREATES jobs. “Save-the-earth” does not sound appealing in many parts of America, but I am sure “more jobs” sounds pretty good in most places.
There are already people trying to raise this issue by making a new Cold War out of it. Even President Obama’s remark of “Sputnik moment” is a term from the Cold War. I personally see this as a competition rather than a war. But if the term “Cold War” can bring up the sense of urgency in America, I’ll definitely put it in the topic.
After all, it’s our Sputnik Moment, right?
