Joe Leahy

Yeah, I think on my father's roof.

I'm not sure whether they're Chinese ones, but there's some solar panels on there.

So it gives China a huge advantage in this area.

And it goes beyond just the power that the solar panels produce themselves.

You can also use them to produce green hydrogen, for instance, which in the future can be used as a green fuel for aviation and all kinds of things.

So I think this is definitely giving China that geopolitical clout.

Now, the question for Europe and other places is, do we want to be dependent on China and we just give up on making our own solar panels and be dependent on China?

Because the technology will evolve as well.

You'll become dependent.

It's a whole thing, Joe, I'll fill you in later.

Yeah, I think the key thing here, especially this Hithium case, is do you want to just buy stuff and bring it in and then you just become completely dependent?

Or do you want to have Chinese companies come in and invest in Europe and set up this capacity in Europe?

And I think a lot of people in Europe would argue, let's have the Chinese come in, invest here under certain rules.

And there's the Industrial Exhilarator Act that we mentioned in that piece as well, which is designed to get Chinese companies to come and invest in

but also transfer a bit of technology, use local employees.

There's a whole bunch of kind of rules around that, which is similar in a way to what China did to European companies and American companies when they first went to China.

Yeah, I think China could have, let's say, a good oil shock crisis out of this.

If external demand suffers, as we've just been talking about, China's exports will go down.

But because Chinese exports are so competitive, they can gain even more market share.

And in the long run, they'll probably keep it.