Hoodwinked
How China hijacked climate fears to achieve global supremacy.
“I'd rather betray the world than let the world betray me.” – Cao Cao
On June 25, US Senator Ted Cruz chaired a remarkable hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights. The focus was on allegations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) financially supports climate activists to hinder American energy development. True to form, Cruz did not mince words as he outlined what he and fellow Republicans view as the CCP’s three-part strategy to weaken its primary geopolitical rival:
“First, foreign money from entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party flows into the United States to bankroll climate advocacy groups who litigate against American energy. Second, activist lawyers flood our courts with lawsuits designed not to win policy debates but to bankrupt energy producers and to dismantle energy infrastructure through sheer attrition. Third, the judiciary itself is being quietly captured and brainwashed as left wing nonprofits host closed door trainings that indoctrinate judges to adopt the ideological goals of the climate lawfare machine.”
For evidence, Cruz pointed to cash outlays at the Energy Foundation China (EFC), a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. According to its website, EFC has disbursed over $500 million to more than 4,000 climate-related projects. Its CEO and president, Ji Zou, is based in Beijing and has a background consistent with strong CCP affiliation. For example, he was a “key member of Chinese climate negotiation team leading up to the Paris Agreement,” among many other prior top roles in China’s government.
Democrats, for their part, accused Cruz of promoting conspiracy theories, dismissing established science, and turning a blind eye to the influence of hydrocarbon industry money in Washington. Rather than address or deny concerns about Chinese influence, they directed their remarks and structured their witness testimony around the financial risks posed by climate change, including the growing housing insurance crisis in high-risk regions of the country.
In our own experience, Cruz’s views are as universally held by industry insiders as they are rarely expressed in public. Navigating global regulatory and political landscapes is challenging enough, and outspokenness is seldom seen as adding value for shareholders. Prudent execution in playing the pieces as they lie is the preferred path. Few doubt who is behind much of the funding of the climate lawfare nexus, but there is simply no upside in directly engaging on the issue, which is why so few executives do.
Conspiracy theory or not, it is indisputable which country has reaped the most benefit from the West’s climate-driven self-impalement. While China has cornered the supply chains critical to the West’s renewable energy ambitions, it has simultaneously indulged in coal consumption—by far the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive hydrocarbon—at a staggering scale. At the time of the first United Nations COP meeting in 1995, global coal consumption totaled 93.6 exajoules. By 2024, China alone had nearly equaled that, consuming 92.2 exajoules. It now consumes 56% of world output.
The scale and significance of China’s coal advantage are often underestimated by Western geopolitical analysts, especially those in the Washington establishment who perennially push for military confrontation. While the West argues over how many solar panels and wind turbines it should be forcing onto its own creaking grids (all made in China, no less), the CCP is busy building its manufacturing and military might, far surpassing what anyone could have imagined when the climate hysteria began 30 years ago. The numbers are staggering, to the point where they should give pause to those agitating for war in Asia. Let’s take a cold, hard look.