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COP30: China’s Green Energy Power Play — How a Laos Wind Farm Reveals Its Global Strategy

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In the remote hills of Dak Cheung, southeastern Laos, a vast new wind power project is quietly reshaping both the region’s energy landscape and the global balance of power.

The Monsoon Wind Power Project, the largest in Southeast Asia, features 133 towering turbines stretching across an area twice the size of the Isle of Wight. It promises to deliver electricity to around one million households in neighboring Vietnam, marking a remarkable feat of engineering in one of Asia’s poorest regions.

Yet, while the site is led by a Thai consortium, its backbone is unmistakably Chinese — built by a state-owned Chinese company, using Chinese technology, and completed at record speed and low cost.

“It makes the project viable,” said Narut Boakajorn, the site’s general manager. “Otherwise, financing would not have been possible.”

This wind farm is a microcosm of China’s global dominance in green energy. The country now produces over 60% of the world’s mass-manufactured green technologies, including 80% of solar panels and 75% of electric vehicles, according to the International Energy Agency. Analysts estimate Chinese clean energy exports in 2024 alone could cut global carbon emissions by 1%.

But Beijing’s motivations go beyond climate stewardship. As China simultaneously builds coal plants and renewable infrastructure, its rapid green expansion looks more like a strategic bet on the future of global energy markets — and influence.

Developing nations like Laos, often enticed by low-cost technology and financing, have become the front line of this new form of soft power. While Laos’ wind project avoided the debt traps seen elsewhere, the country has already ceded control of most of its power grid to a Chinese firm amid financial struggles.

The symbolism is striking: in the same mountains once bombed by the U.S. during the Vietnam War, China is now building turbines — a new kind of influence rising from the ashes of an old one.

Netherlands May Drop Control of Nexperia If China Resumes Chip Exports

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The Dutch government is reportedly prepared to end its control over Nexperia if China resumes exports of the company’s chips, potentially easing tensions that have rattled global supply chains, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said authorities in the Netherlands could suspend the ministerial order as soon as next week, provided shipments from China resume and are verified. The order, imposed on September 30, gave The Hague temporary veto powers over Nexperia’s corporate decisions amid concerns about Chinese influence over the semiconductor maker.

Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans said on Thursday he expected Nexperia chips to reach European and global customers “in the coming days.” He added that the government would “support these developments, and take appropriate steps where necessary.”

A spokesperson for Karremans declined to clarify whether those steps could include lifting the intervention, which was initially designed to safeguard Dutch strategic interests in the semiconductor sector.

The dispute erupted after the Chinese government blocked exports of Nexperia’s products from the country in early October, following the Dutch seizure of control. The move sparked a global shortage of Nexperia chips, which are widely used in automotive, industrial, computing, and consumer electronics.

The disruption forced several European carmakers to scale back production and furlough workers. Industry analysts say restoring chip flows is critical to stabilizing supply chains and preventing further economic fallout.

Nexperia, which was acquired by China’s Wingtech Technology, has yet to comment on the Dutch government’s latest position.

China Sends Youngest Astronaut Yet to Its ‘Heavenly Palace’ Space Station

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China has launched its Shenzhou-21 mission, sending a three-member crew — including the nation’s youngest astronaut to date — to the Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”) space station, state media reported Friday.

The crew blasted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, marking the seventh crewed mission to the permanently inhabited station since its completion in 2022.

The new team will spend six months aboard Tiangong, taking over duties from the Shenzhou-20 astronauts, who are expected to return to Earth in the coming days.

The mission’s commander, Zhang Lu, 48, previously flew on Shenzhou-15, while first-time astronauts Zhang Hongzhang, 39, and Wu Fei, 32 — China’s youngest astronaut ever to fly — complete the trio.

Joining them are four black mice, the first small mammals taken to the Chinese space station. They will be used in biological experiments to study reproduction in low Earth orbit, part of China’s broader push into space-based life sciences.

Biannual launches have now become standard for the Shenzhou program, which in recent years has achieved major milestones — including the first crewed missions by astronauts born in the 1990s, record-breaking spacewalks, and plans to send Pakistan’s first astronaut to Tiangong in 2026.

China’s rapid expansion in space exploration has drawn increasing attention from Washington, where NASA is racing to return American astronauts to the Moon before Beijing does. Both powers are also establishing rival frameworks for lunar exploration — the U.S.-led Artemis Accords and the China–Russia International Lunar Research Station initiative.