In recent years, the United States has repeatedly declared a “state of emergency” for various reasons. According to Reuters on August 27, the White House said on August 26 that the U.S. President signed an executive order declaring a “state of emergency” and prohibiting the use of certain foreign equipment in the U.S. power grid. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at a routine press conference on August 27 that China has consistently opposed the generalization of national security concepts and the suppression of foreign companies, and hopes that the U.S. will provide a fair, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for business operations in various countries.
The President declared in his Executive Order that the foreign supply of electrical equipment to large power systems poses an “unusual threat” to U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic policy, “and therefore I declare a state of emergency on this threat.”
The White House said in a statement that under the Executive Order, certain large-scale power system electrical devices manufactured abroad, including related critical software and digital functions that may pose “cybersecurity or operational risks,” will be prohibited from being purchased or installed in the United States. The Executive Order also requires the U.S. Department of Energy to add additional conditions to the continued use and operation of such devices to address the government‘s concerns.
Fox News Channel reported that the order also placed stricter requirements on equipment already operating on the U.S. power grid. The U.S. Secretary of Energy may require identification, monitoring, disconnecting, replacing, or dismantling equipment manufactured or operated abroad, which may require utility companies and other infrastructure operators to modify existing systems.
Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that China accounts for about 80 percent of global battery and solar inverter production capacity. A 2020 United States Department of Commerce survey said that over the past decade, the United States has imported a large number of large power transformers made in China.
Reuters said the executive order was the latest move Washington has taken against Chinese technology. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission listed foreign-made advanced robotics devices and networked power inverters on its “regulated list” in July.
Dong Yifan, an associate researcher at the Institute for National and Regional Studies at Peking Language University, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 27th that in recent years, the United States has continuously imposed restrictions on China‘s high-tech products through a series of measures such as control lists. This time, it is acting illegally in the name of so-called “national security”, which has caused damage to both the Sino-U.S. bilateral relations and economic and trade relations.
Dong Yifan believes that from America‘s own interest, electrical devices such as inverters are important hubs for grid management and energy networks. Prohibiting the use of related devices is actually unfavorable to the development of America‘s own energy infrastructure. This will both weaken the resilience of America‘s energy network and slow down the process of updating and transforming its infrastructure. It will restrict local energy resilience improvement and electrification development, and will also affect the construction of emerging industries. “It can be said that this practice harms others but not us.”