The Biden administration wants half of all new cars sold in the United States to be electric by 2030. Meanwhile, the European Union has taken even bolder steps, mandating that all new cars and vans sold after 2035 emit zero emissions. Taken together, that’s good news – for China.
China’s current five-year plan goes further, linking breakthroughs in these two fields to China’s emergence as a “science and technology powerhouse”. These party cells and the company’s other party-state linkages provide the CCP with almost unfettered access to CATL’s proprietary technologies and strategic market data, potentially giving other Chinese entities a competitive edge and undermining US and European companies’ positions in global markets.Yet in a move reminiscent of Huawei’s push to dominate the 5G and smartphone sectors, CATL and BYD are already setting their sights on controlling battery-adjacent industries.
Just as with Huawei, the risks posed by Chinese BESS are immediate and undeniable. Research from the British risk management firm Aon reveals that pervasive cybersecurity deficiencies associated with BESS control systems could allow malign actors to trigger wide-scale electrical grid blackouts.And a 2022 US Department of Energy report made clear that malicious actors are already “positioned well” to hack distributed energy systems, including BESS, in the US.
Of course, the danger isn’t solely digital. Numerous Chinese laws, but particularly the 2017 national security law and recently revised counter-espionage law, compel all Chinese companies to align their operations with Beijing’s strategic interests.