Surfacing Long-Term Drivers & Impact

BASE PROBLEM: Forced labor risks in china’s aluminum supply chain

This report finds pervasive exposure to indicators of forced labor across the aluminum industry in Xinjiang. The report finds that every one of the eight major aluminum companies operating in Xinjiang is associated with government-led transfer of labor programs or related sub-programming in the region. Together, they account directly for some 10 percent of the world’s aluminum, a critical input into everything from kitchen utensils to airliners; indirectly, even more.

As covered in Bloomberg.

CHINA'S HEAD START: ANALYSIS OF CHINA'S INDUSTRIAL POLICY FOR GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ASCENDANCE

The Chinese Communist Party is vying to take advantage of the new energy era to lock in advantage across EV markets and supply chains. A new automotive landscape is taking shape, with it a new hierarchy. This hierarchy is poised to last. As Chinese auto industry leaders put it in 2008, “whoever can take the initiative in this wave of innovation is likely to become a leader in the global automotive industry for a long time.”

As discussed in The Manufacturing Report.

Footholds and friction: China’s European Steel Front

Over the past decades, China has secured key trade, investment, and industrial footholds abroad. Now, China is using those to export its distortive approach to markets. This allows China to influence and permeate global markets indirectly, through outside proxies, rather than just directly, through Chinese players. In doing so, Beijing is able to flout US defenses against China’s non-market behavior. The steel sector presents a prime example of China’s industrial proxy wars, and one with important industrial and national security implications.