No More Subsidizing China’s Grip on American Energy
Chinese President Xi Jinping just wrapped up a three-day state visit to Washington. The ceremonies may be over, but one of the biggest problems in the U.S.-China relationship remains: America’s dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains.
Trump administration officials are still sounding the alarm about exactly why that dependence matters.
As Fox News reported, U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue warned that Beijing has “weaponized” its dominant position in critical minerals.
“This is a single-source dominant position that China is weaponizing against the world right now,” Perdue told Fox News Sunday.
Perdue said the United States once held dominant positions in industries including rare-earth magnets, only to watch that capacity shift to China over the past two decades. The administration, he said, is now seeking to rebuild American independence from Beijing-controlled supply chains.
That warning reinforces concerns Power The Future raised earlier this month.
PTF joined Consumer Action for a Strong Economy and other organizations in a letter urging Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure Chinese-controlled battery companies cannot use American subsidiaries or other corporate arrangements to access U.S. manufacturing and energy tax incentives, when in reality they are, and should be designated as, foreign entities of concern.
The coalition put the principle plainly:
“American taxpayers should not finance the expansion of Chinese-controlled battery companies inside the United States.”
The letter specifically called on Treasury to scrutinize whether companies remain dependent on Chinese ownership, technology, intellectual property, equipment, financing, executives, engineers or supply chains, even when their factories or subsidiaries are technically located in the United States.
As the coalition wrote:
“A factory does not become American merely because it stands in Ohio or North Carolina.”
For PTF, the issue is bigger than any single battery plant or tax credit. Its stated position is that American energy policy should build genuinely independent domestic capacity rather than replace one form of foreign-energy dependence with reliance on Chinese-controlled minerals, technology and manufacturing.
Xi’s visit may have provided an opportunity for diplomacy. The warnings coming from the administration show why reducing U.S. dependence on Beijing remains an unresolved energy-security issue.
September 29, 2026