This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy speak with Henry Sanderson, a former AP and Bloomberg reporter who was based in China for many years, about his book Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green — a book that reminds us of the very ugly fact that the metals that are needed to make electric vehicle batteries need to be dug out of the earth, and processed in ways that are anything but environmentally friendly. Henry talks about China's outsize role in lithium, cobalt, and nickel processing, as well as some promising chemistries that allow for EV batteries without some of the problematic metals.
2:49 – China’s role in the EV battery supply chain
9:36 – Global Chinese investments in lithium mines
14:04 – Is cobalt a necessary evil?
18:56 – Can NGO pressure induce better corporate behavior in EV battery supply chains?
21:28 – How Indonesia used its nickel resources to attract Chinese FDI
26:17 – China’s efforts to innovate around scarce metals
32:08 – China’s metal processing industry: State- or market-driven?
36:06 – Lessons from Europe’s battery industry
40:42 – Electrification of two-wheeled vehicles
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Jeremy: London Review of Books
Henry: The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung
Kaiser: Tracking the People’s Daily newsletter by Manoj Kewalramani
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Max Fisher of the New York Times on media coverage of China, COVID-19, and Trump
Has China won? Part 2 of our conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Has China won? A conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Kaiser interviews Gordon Chang!
Grounding China's drones: Leading drone maker DJI's Brendan Schulman on U.S. regulatory challenges
The pathogen and the prejudice: Jiwei Xiao on COVID-19 in China and in America
The Sinica Podcast turns 10
China's Venezuelan vicissitudes
R.I.P. Liu Dehai, pipa virtuoso
Will China save the planet? A climatic conversation with NRDC's Barbara Finamore
Former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul on democracy promotion in Russia and China
Dexter Roberts on ‘The Myth of Chinese Capitalism’
Janet Yang and Michael Berry on the state of cinema in a time of souring U.S.-China ties
USCBC President Craig Allen on trade in a time of disruption
UCLA's Alex Wang on where China leads and lags in climate change
Jeff Wasserstrom on music in protest and revolution in modern China
Chinese industrial espionage and FBI profiling and overreach, with Mara Hvistendahl
U.S. tries to persuade Africa it is a credible alternative to China
Bonus Episode - coronavirus update with Yanzhong Huang
China policy and the American presidency
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free