STORY: China should be applauded for making NEV affordable: Zimbabwean official
SHOOTING TIME: April 15, 2024
DATELINE: April 17, 2024
LENGTH: 0:02:26
LOCATION: Harare
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (ENGLISH) CHRISTOPHER MUTSVANGWA, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party Politburo member
2. SOUNDBITE 2 (ENGLISH) CHRISTOPHER MUTSVANGWA, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party Politburo member

STORYLINE:

The "overcapacity" rhetoric used by the United States to describe China's green industries runs counter to globalization and free trade.

Christopher Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party Politburo member, dismissed the "overcapacity" rhetoric, saying China should be applauded rather than be criticized for making new energy vehicles more affordable.

SOUNDBITE 1 (ENGLISH) CHRISTOPHER MUTSVANGWA, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party Politburo member
"There are better ways where humanity with a shared future can embrace the efficiencies which China is bringing into the new energy sector across the board so that there can be rapid movement by all society, not just America, but all society away from the debilitating fossil fuels. The interesting thing about China's vehicle manufacturers is that the most successful ones are not the ones from state-owned companies, they are mostly from privately owned companies. They are just doing the job better than the others, then, China has also invested in the full value chain of electric vehicle production."

He said from the perspective of Zimbabwe, the United States' accusations are self-serving more than they are fair to the world.

He added that the "overcapacity" rhetoric is meant to protect the United States' home market companies, and therefore is detrimental to free trade.

SOUNDBITE 2 (ENGLISH) CHRISTOPHER MUTSVANGWA, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party Politburo member
"It's a no-brainer that the Western world had a head-start in fossil fuel combustion starting with coal before we moved on to petroleum, so, the intellectual property for most of this fossil fuel engine sector of the world resides in Western countries. So why would America now want China to be stopped from taking advantage of the efficiencies which it had invested so much in? But even more, China has been strong in solar energy production, they have lowered the price of solar panels. This is good! Because if you lower the price, it means even countries which are less endowed in resources can also afford to become part of the market of solar panels. Everybody could see that with global warming pressures, we are going to need electricity as the driver of new energy mobility, the Chinese read the signals very well, and they responded accordingly and put their capital, and they put their research and development and they got the patents of this shift from fossil to new energy storage battery mobility, why should they now be denied their advantage artificially by America, which feels that its companies were laggards? And why would America not want Chinese comparative advantage to be available on the global markets so that we can quickly shift to green energy away from fossil by paying for the most affordable new energy batteries and by paying for the solar panels which are most affordable."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Harare.
(XHTV)