In recent years, as the game between China and the United States has become increasingly white-hot, the pressure of the United States on China in the industrial field has also become more serious. In particular, for traditional manufacturing, the United States hopes to help emerging manufacturing powers by promoting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, so that they will no longer rely on Chinese products. The United States has successively introduced the "China Chips Act" and the "Inflation Reduction Act", which aim to curb China's development through a series of measures aimed at reducing China's power in the era of the new industrial revolution. However, did the U.S. bill achieve the goals they wanted? By now, it has caused a lot of dissatisfaction.
Recently, Australia** reported that the Australian authorities previously submitted a document to the US Department of Energy, pointing out that Australia** implemented the US "Inflation Reduction Act", a series of problems that could not be confirmed, and some Australian partisans and ** were not willing to implement the relevant measures. The Inflation Reduction Act, ostensibly to reduce the adverse consequences of inflation, is in fact to weaken the competitiveness of Chinese companies, which have excluded them. As for Australia, it is the biggest problem, according to the law, neither China nor the other four countries, as long as they own 25% of the shares, will not enjoy the ** subsidy. Among them, Australia and China have the closest relationship and are also the closest mining sector. In this regard, an article in Australia pointed out that it is not easy to find the Chinese element from its ** chain, and it is tricky.
It is clear that Australia, Australian companies and the media are stymied in their efforts to follow the US Inflation Reduction Act. This resistance comes from all sides and is difficult to reverse. First, Australia is highly dependent on China's lithium processing industry. Not only is more than 90% of Australia's lithium resources now reported to be sent to China for processing, but China also has more than 25% of its large lithium reserves. Lithium-ion is a key raw material for new power batteries, and if it does not get subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, Australia will fall into an embarrassing situation, not only to drive out Chinese companies, but also to invest a lot of money to build a deep processing industry of lithium resources, which is impossible to complete in a short period of time in Australia.
The second point is that there is still a strong demand for Australian investment in China. Australian Commerce Minister Farrell said in November that while the United States has been trying to break China's "monopoly" on important minerals, Australia has not opened the door to Chinese investment in Australian projects, and only then can Australia reap the maximum benefits. Because only China can afford to inject capital into mining companies in Australia, not the United States and the West. Therefore, for the sake of profits, the subsidy of the United States ** is not very critical.
Third, China has the ability to develop new energy sources. Everyone knows that the US tax cut plan is aimed at China, and the purpose is to hit China's new energy industry. However, in Australia's view, China's current photovoltaic and electric vehicles and other new energy fields have been at the forefront of the world, and in the field of new energy, there is also a great leading position. Against this backdrop, Australia has no excuse for a small amount of subsidies, and even if it did, it would be highly likely to face a counterattack from China.
As a result, there is a clear contradiction between Australia's joint negotiations with China on mining issues and the proposal to reduce inflation. The case of Australia is a good example of this, and with the huge benefits, the "decoupling" of the United States cannot be successful. The most important thing now is to upgrade China's manufacturing industry so that the world no longer depends on us.
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