CGTN TV: Long-term planning is the key to China's continued growth
Speaking a few days ahead of the Earth Day summit on climate change in April, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that the U.S. had fallen behind China in developing the technology needed to curb climate change.
He drew attention to the fact that China holds nearly a third of the world's renewable energy patents and is the world's largest producer and exporter of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles.
China's global dominance in renewable energy is no accident. It is the result of the type of long-range planning that has become a well-known characteristic of the nation's governance system.
The government's own national renewable targets, stretched over 15 years, were first set out in a document titled, Medium and Long-Term Development Plan for Renewable Energy, in 2005. An accompanying landmark Renewable Energy Law passed the same year created the conditions for green energy growth and tackling problems of water and air pollution.
The result? "China is for now winning the global race to invent and manufacture the technologies that will allow a new low-carbon world," according to a Foreign Policy article.