Chinese Green Tech Companies Pose National Security Risks to US, Report Says

Electric vehicle parking at a grocery store in Mount Joy, Pa., in February 2023. Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times

Companies backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may exploit its green energy technology to “achieve strategic, political, and intelligence advantages over the United States,” according to a report released on Oct. 23.

“The growth of these industries furthers the White House’s climate and renewable energy goals” but may pose “significant risks to U.S. critical infrastructure, data security, and supply chain integrity,” said Craig Singleton, the report’s author and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank.

Mr. Singleton used China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) as a case study to illustrate those risks.

CATL became widely known in February after Ford Motor Co. announced a now-paused partnership with the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery maker. Ford signed an agreement to license CATL’s battery technology for a new $3.5 billion facility in Michigan. The deal sparked national security concerns from lawmakers and local community members, who said Ford’s use of CATL’s technology would deepen U.S. supply chain reliance on China and allow federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, designed to incentivize made-in-America manufacturing, to flow to a company with ties to the CCP.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies report argues that CATL wouldn’t have achieved its current success without the CCP’s subsidies, favorable policies that shielded the Chinese domestic EV battery market, and safety requirements that regulators had lifted for CATL.

The report also provided the context of the Chinese political, legal, and business environment to show that CATL couldn’t behave outside the CCP’s laws and military-civil fusion demands to share technology and data with the CCP.

Chairman and CEO of Contemporary Amperex Technology Robin Zeng Yuqun speaks during the Lanting Forum in Shanghai on April 21, 2023. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

“All told, Zeng’s personal affiliations place CATL within the party-state’s sphere of control and could provide concrete channels for the CCP to exert influence,” the report reads, referring to CATL’s founder and chairman Robin Zeng Yuqun and his membership in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the CCP. “Zeng’s robust, repeated defense of Xi’s ideological goals suggest that CATL serves the state.”

CATL isn’t just Mr. Zeng’s company but a national champion for the CCP.

“If Zeng’s enthusiasm ever wavers, fear could cement his loyalty. He might prioritize compliance with CCP directives to avoid a similar fate as tech giant Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, who disappeared for an extended period after criticizing the Chinese government’s policies,” the report reads. “Even then, the CCP could, without warning, simply replace Zeng with a leader of its choosing to further support the CCP’s objectives.”

Mr. Singleton also warned that CATL’s derivative products of EV charging and battery storage solutions could “serve as potential access points for intelligence, collection, cyberespionage, and sabotage,” with “widespread blackouts impacting industrial centers or financial hubs” in a worst-case scenario.

“EV users could be tracked for months or even years after a single charge” if manufacturers install malicious software in public charging equipment, he wrote.

CATL batteries are used at renewable energy generation sites in Florida, Virginia, Nevada, and California and at a solar farm on leased land inside Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to the report.