Chinese EVs' success due to 'fine entrepreneurial spirit': Premier Li

He counters claims from West that electric carmakers benefited from unfair subsidies

- Aw Cheng Wei

Chinese Premier Li Qiang countered allegations that China’s electric vehicle (EV) makers have benefited from unfair subsidies, attributing their strong performance to a “fine entrepreneurial spirit” instead.

The success of China’s emerging industries, including green technology, was rooted in the country’s “unique comparative advantages”, he said at the World Economic Forum meeting in China’s Dalian on June 25.

These include a super-sized market of 1.4 billion people, a complete industrial system, and a wide and diverse talent pool, he added.

Furthermore, Chinese consumers “are more receptive to new technologies”, and this has fuelled the emergence of the country’s innovative firms, he added. “That is how China’s emerging industries get their competitiveness.”

China overtook Japan in 2023 to become the world’s largest auto exporter, driven by the success of its electric cars.

But Chinese EV companies have come under scrutiny by foreign governments including the European Union, the United States and, most recently, Canada, on fears that their markets are being flooded with cheap – subsidised – Chinese EVs to the detriment of local manufacturers.