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[Text/Observer Network Xiong Chaoran] According to the Hong Kong "South China Morning Post" report on August 17, in response to the recent unreasonable tariff policies implemented by the United States and Europe on Chinese electric vehicles, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng stated at the "China-Africa Cooperation to Address Climate Change and Achieve a Just Transition" seminar on the 15th that the United States and the European Union should "catch up" with China in stepping up efforts to produce reasonably priced electric vehicles to prove that their additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are "reasonable". Otherwise, the reasons for the United States and Europe to arbitrarily wield the "tariff stick" are obviously untenable.

On August 15, local time, Wu Peng attended the "China-Africa Cooperation to Address Climate Change and Achieve a Just Transition" seminar co-organized by the Chinese Embassy in South Africa and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and delivered a keynote speech. When talking about the accusations by Europe and the United States that China has so-called "overcapacity" in the field of electric vehicles, Wu Peng said that no country should be blamed for its production capacity in the green energy industry. "If we are really serious about addressing climate change, the green energy production capacity of any country actually belongs to the whole world."

Next month, the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit will be held in Beijing, and it is expected that the meeting will list green energy as an important topic. Wu Peng also cited a series of data and pointed out that China, as a world leader in electric vehicle technology, solar energy and other new energy products, has played an important role in reducing harmful carbon emissions. In 2023, China produced nearly 9.5 million electric vehicles and exported nearly 1.8 million, which helped reduce global carbon emissions by about 50 million tons.

"Let's wait and see. If they can catch up and produce more electric vehicles that consumers can afford in a very fast way, I think it's fine." Wu Peng challenged the wrong practice of the United States and Europe to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles: "But if they don't do this, I think (the tariff policy) is a bit unreasonable."

Wu Peng, who took office as China's ambassador to South Africa in June this year, said that the United States and the European Union have been accusing China of so-called "overcapacity" in the field of electric vehicles, but no country should be blamed for its production capacity in the green energy industry. "If we are really serious about addressing climate change, the green energy production capacity of any country actually belongs to the whole world."

He pointed out that by 2023, more than half of the world's new renewable energy installed capacity will come from China, and China's total investment in the new energy sector will reach US$676 billion, accounting for 38% of the world's total investment. In addition, China also produces 70% of the world's solar and wind farm equipment and other key components.

"Yes, we export these green energy products to developed countries. They may not be very happy about this." Wu Peng believes that the United States and the European Union should realize that it is these China-made products that help developed countries reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 570 million tons each year, which is equivalent to nearly 41% of global renewable energy carbon emissions reductions during the same period.

Wu Peng mentioned that China is a pioneer in addressing climate change and green energy transformation, and there is broad prospect for cooperation between China and Africa and China and South Africa in the above fields, and there is no so-called "China's overcapacity problem". The new China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit is about to be held, and China will further strengthen the connection of green development strategies with Africa and work together to build a "green Africa".

"I found that we have a lot in common with African ambassadors to China. They said that green development must be the theme, and we completely agree with this." Wu Peng introduced that China has made large investments in Africa's green energy industry, such as the NOOR II and NOOR III concentrated solar power projects in Ouarzazate, Morocco, the 500-megawatt wind power project in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, and the Garissa solar power plant in Kenya.

China has signed 18 cooperation documents on climate change with 16 African countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia and Benin. "China has implemented hundreds of clean energy power generation and green projects in Africa, many of which have become milestone projects in the development of local clean energy," said Wu Peng.

However, while China is actively developing its green energy industry, the United States and the European Union have frequently "thrown dirty water" and hyped up the so-called "overcapacity theory" in an attempt to hinder China's development.

On May 22, local time, the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced that, based on the instructions of the US President, the office decided after research and judgment: to maintain the "Section 301" tariffs imposed on China during the Trump administration, and to significantly increase tariffs on China's "target strategic products". Among them, the import tariff on electric vehicles will be increased threefold to more than 100%.

On June 12, local time, the European Commission announced that it would impose an additional tariff of up to 38.1% on electric vehicles imported from China. On July 4, local time, the European Commission released a 208-page document, announcing that it had decided to impose temporary anti-subsidy duties on electric vehicles imported from China from July 5, for a maximum period of 4 months. During this period, EU member states will vote to decide on the final anti-subsidy measures. If passed, the EU will officially impose anti-subsidy duties on Chinese electric vehicles for a period of 5 years.

Regarding the trade protectionist measures taken by relevant countries against China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning previously stated that, as Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out, turning normal trade exchanges into security-oriented and ideologized ones, building "high walls in small courtyards" in the name of "de-risking", not pursuing "running faster" but trying to "trip others up" may seem to have won, but in fact they have lost their own long-term development and are also dragging down the world's progress and prosperity.

He Yadong, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce of China, also said that China has noticed that some EU member governments and major automobile companies have repeatedly expressed opposition to the EU's anti-subsidy measures against Chinese electric vehicles. China hopes that the EU will seriously listen to the voices within the EU and conduct consultations with China rationally and pragmatically to avoid anti-subsidy measures that harm the mutually beneficial cooperation and common development of the China-EU automobile industry.

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