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Essay by Eric Worrall
“Australia must ditch its distrust and collaborate” – and not purchase any US nuclear submarines.
I’ve seen the energy future and it’s in China, and Australia must ditch its distrust and collaborate
Caroline Wang
Jun 18, 2025I’ve seen the energy future, and it’s in China.
On a recent delegation, I saw the futuristic factory of solar giant Longi in Jiaxing, with its omnipresent robots, combining automation, big data, AI and 5G to flexibly customise solar module components for diverse application scenarios and customers, revolutionising advanced manufacturing at massive scale.
This is not an isolated case. China leads the world by a huge and growing margin across almost all of the frontiers of our decarbonised future, from sophisticated clean tech manufacturing to domestic renewable energy installations to foreign direct investment into the energy transition.
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As John Grimes, CEO of peak industry body the Smart Energy Council said on our recent delegation, “It is the Australia-China relationship that gives the world a fighting chance in addressing climate change”.
However, as Grimes acknowledges, a crude geostrategic lens continues to dominate the Australian government’s thinking on partnership with China.
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As Dr Cao Yu, Executive Director of CMBI Capital Management, commented: “The Australian side of the relationship is not stable”, referring to Australia’s partnership in AUKUS, a China containment strategy costing $368bn and now under review by the Trump Administration – funding that could be spent on renewable energy to help solve the world’s largest threat: climate change.
Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/ive-seen-the-energy-future-and-its-in-china-and-australia-must-ditch-its-distrust-and-collaborate/
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AUKUS, among other things, is a deal for Australia to purchase three US nuclear powered Virginia class submarines. Such submarines would present a grave strategic threat towards any Chinese aggression in the South Pacific, where depending on the target of that aggression, maritime military supplies would potentially have to be transported through thousands of miles of open ocean.
But this US / Australia / UK submarine deal is under threat, because of Australia’s public hostility towards some US foreign policy positions, and Australia’s outright rejection of Trump’s request for Australia to spend more on defence. All of this appears to be undermining US confidence in Australia’s reliability as a US ally.
China would love for Australia to align more closely with China. Australia refused China’s recent appeal to “join hands” to oppose US tariffs, an international embarrassment which likely shocked China’s leadership. As Australia’s largest trading partner, the market for over 30% of Australia’s exports, China may have assumed Australia was already part of their sphere of influence.
China may have underestimated how much they upset Aussie voters, by conducting unannounced live fire exercises near the Australian coast in March this year. This anger over China’s infringement on Australia’s sovereignty makes it politically difficult for Australian leaders to appear too friendly towards China.
There is another problem. Paying for AUKUS commitments AND Prime Minister Albanese’s green energy promises would really stretch Australia’s finances.
Something has to give. I don’t know the intentions of the Albanese government, but if the AUKUS submarine deal was to collapse, and if the majority of Aussie voters believed President Trump was to blame for the collapse of the deal, there would be no significant Aussie electoral backlash for going soft on China. The $386 billion currently earmarked for purchasing the US nuclear submarines could instead be diverted to attempting to fulfil the Albanese government’s renewable energy electoral promises.
Achieving Net Zero is a major goal of Australia’s left wing Albanese government, but they are struggling to attract investment and enthusiasm – in fact the entire Australian economy is showing signs of a slump in productivity. Part of the reason for this lack of renewable investment enthusiasm might be the threat a future coalition government could cancel renewable subsidies. But if subsidised green industries could be grown sufficiently to become a major employer of Aussie voters, it would be much costlier in terms of political capital for a future coalition government to cancel those subsidies.
The Albanese government would also be able to use some of that cancelled submarine money to kickstart their “Future made in Australia” programme, a key election promise to revive Australian manufacturing through subsidised investment in green manufacturing industries.
Perhaps China senses an opportunity in this ongoing Australian political and fiscal turmoil.
I thought I was reading about 1938 Austria not 2026 Australia.
Perhaps rather than kowtowing to CCP wishes, Australia would do better emulating China and start building coal fired power plants.
Maybe they’re prepping for Beersheba again.
Australia would definitely be far better off with the Nuclear Submarines than emulating China by producing or buying mass quantities of Substandard Solar components with hidden off switches controlled by foreign entities
“…said the spider to the fly…”
Well Wang is a Chinese Surname
But when it finally becomes clear to John Grimes and others that “climate change” is not a real thing but a fantasy, all the time, money and effort spent creating and feeding “the Australia-China relationship” will be seen for what it was — an expensive and useless waste.
Mind you, I have been waiting 40+ years for reality to dawn on the climate change loonies. Tick tock.
I couldn’t have said it better mate! Reality is finally coming into focus for the public, when they realize only a quarter of the western world is actually in sync with the climate alarmism. Nations are waking up to the issue that climate policies, in particular net zero are not working, are extremely expensive causing inflation, are costing industrial workers jobs, are taking investment away from social problems, are causing energy insecurity and thus defense insecurity.
The public are going to be livid when they find out this policy mess is all for no environmental, health or economic gain, except for the unreliable energy companies whose very existence relies on the publics generosity via deep subsidies provided by science and energy deluded governments.
What a stupid self-imposed mess Australia and the other UN compliant nations are in.
Australia – fast becoming China’s “USEFUL IDIOT”.
(note though that the current Labor socialist government received only 34% of the primary vote at the recent election, but they’re conducting themselves as if they got 99% of the voters’ support)
Thats absurd claim. The election was for “seats” in the house and they won 62.5% of the seats – a landslide. Its as you know preferential for seats where the winner doesnt get more than 50.0%
The election wasnt based on the popular vote and seats allocated on that , like say Germany and NZ do. Do you really want the Greens to have 18 seats in HR ?
If you want proportional seats, that arent allocated by a states population, just look to the Senate to see that confused result
The outcomes don’t reflect overall voter sentiments, when 66% of voters preferred candidates other than those from the Labor Party.
I don’t know what a more representative system would look like, but when only 34% of 1st preference electoral votes yields 64% of the governing parliamentary votes, a fresh look at the voting system is indicated.
Bollocks.
Yep that is our crazy voting system where your vote may not end up where you want it but somewhere as set by parties in weird preference deals.
Even poor Adam MadDog Bandt found that out as he lost his seat because all the parties preferenced him last because he was hated by just about everyone except those special green kids.
We already are “China’s useful idiot”.
What has Albania to do with it?
But then, it became clear that Albanese is the name of an Australian politician, not a reference to Albania.
Then, the question arises as to whether it is the CANDY company?
No, not proffered candy, but intimidation. China intimidates Australia.
It becomes clear why Australia needs subs. If not nuclear, then German H2 – fuel cell subs (photo) can submerge for a month, buy them or build them yourself. On the beach!
The question is what can 30 million Aussies do against 1.4 billion Chinese?
The answer is NOT blowing in the wind, but it is very clear.
100 nuclear weapons with deliver capability would do it nicely.
North Korea has shown the way again.
What can 9 million Israelis do against 90 million Iranians?
Knock them out of the sky with ease…
Blow up Iranian bases…
Eliminate Iranian Air Defences…
Need more be said???
It never takes these socialist too long to reveal their real purpose.
The CCP almost certainly regards Albanese as just another useful idiot.
Australia is in big trouble. The Australian voter better wake up.
I’m afraid that the average Australian voter is more impressed with “freebies” paid for out of other people’s taxes and borrowings than it is with reality. For all intent and purpose, we are a dumbass nation living on long past romantic notions when we were a go-ahead reliable nation.
You are describing Australia? Seems to fit USA and UK and and and….
AUKUS … can the US trust the Australian Government to protect a first-class nuclear submarine fleet from falling into the hands of the CCP?
In many respects, I see the CCP military posturing much in the same as the hype of Russian military capability. The armaments may have fancy names and claims, but being effective is another matter.
It’s difficult to say how effective Chinese equipment is. In the recent war between Pakistan and India, Pakistan shot down US made aircraft using Chinese jets. Iran’s ballistic missiles, many of which may have been Chinese, repeatedly penetrated Israel’s Iron Dome. But Iran’s air defences, some of which may have been Chinese, folded like a paper coffee cup before the onslaught of the Israeli airforce.
I’ve worked with Chinese people before, their biggest cultural weakness is they can’t tell the boss he made a mistake. So it is entirely possible their untested weapons platforms contain fatal flaws which were never communicated to management. But at the same time they have enormous productive capacity and some very clever engineers, so I wouldn’t expect any flaws exposed by initial engagements to remain a problem for long.
China may be building hundreds of “military vessels” but they’re all basically “Junk”
Ms Wang is correct that Future Made in Australia hasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell of competing with Chinese dumping of solar panels inverters wind turbines batteries and EVs and at present we pay for them with coal iron ore NG and food and fibre that are largely produced with fossil fuels anyway. Talk’s cheap with nut zero from Labor Teals and Greens as they roll on extending Woodside gas and coal exports while they stuff around with fickles in the electricity grid from coal fired China.
The conservative side of politics didn’t have the balls to ditch nut zero like Trump so we carry on with the schizophrenic facade as Labor are acutely aware greenouts will be the end of them with rising electricity costs already exposing the lie that fickles are cheaper. Made in Australia fickles would be game set and match as we can’t even keep up with the left’s immigration creating homelessness.
For a long time now the conservative/free market side of politics has lacked a fundamental blueprint that answers and combats the eco/sustainability argument the left has captured so we all proceed with the science of muddling through in an aimless swamp. Basically Oz hasn’t had a Biden catastrophe begetting a Trump backlash if you get the drift but hey you Murricans know how to do these things big time.
Knowing and doing are two different things.
While we are trying to do, the resistance is Borg intensive.
So when is the Longi plant going renewables only?
“Recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as the PV sector’s first Lighthouse Factory, LONGi’s Jiaxing facility has long been a pioneer in automation, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and 5G-enabled digitalization. Now, it has raised the bar further by achieving full carbon neutrality under the ISO 14068 standard—a first for the industry.
The transformation was driven by a multi-pronged approach: deploying rooftop solar installations, securing green energy certificates, optimizing energy efficiency, and leveraging AI-driven analytics to minimize emissions. The result? A production base that not only leads in smart manufacturing but also operates with net-zero environmental impact.”
https://cnbusinessforum.com/longis-jiaxing-production-base-sets-global-standard-as-first-lighthouse-zero-carbon-pv-factory/
China continues to build COAL-FIRED POWER STATIONS at a rapid pace.
So yes, we do need to align with China on this issue.
At least one new major COAL FIRED power station in each of the 3 main eastern states.
There needs to be a Southeast Asia version of NATO – S. Korea – Japan – Philippines – Australia – NZ – USA.
If Australia does not want nuclear submarines, they could, perhaps, contract with China to procure coal fired submarines.
/s
And if BEV zealots think they’re the future, here’s what the Mayor of the town in Canada where GM just halted BEV production had to say –
It’s honest to say that I think everybody may have misunderstood the scale of the problem that we’re facing to do the EV switch,” he said. “I think all of them will admit that it’s been a bigger problem than they once thought.”