Heat. Heat. Have you heard of the phrase dependency trap? Your favorite e-commerce apps use it every day. They hook you with cheap goods and endless discounts. They make you dependent, sometimes even addicted to the service, and once you get used to it, you can’t let go. China has mastered this art. It has made everyone dependent on its supply chains. And just when the world needs it the most, China raises the cost and rewrites the terms. They’ve done it again this week. China has announced new restrictions. The target, eight critical technologies, technologies that are used to make batteries for EVs. So from now on, if any Chinese player wants to transfer this tech, they will need a license. Whatever the purpose of this tech transfer, trade, investment, partnership, whatever the purpose, the Chinese player will first have to get a license from Beijing. In technical terms, this is called an export control. But in practice, it’s a lot more than that. Beijing is basically tightening its grip on the global EV supply chain. And in doing so, they’re affecting the whole world. They’re doing it at a critical moment when world trade has been rattled by a tariff war. You see, the Americans are placing barriers on trade. This is hurting economies like we just told you, but it is also creating some opportunities for new players to step up and rebalance trade flows. And this is what China is trying to stop. It is exploiting its advantage in the EV sector. Chinese battery makers are way ahead of their rivals. Their batteries are cheaper and more efficient. They can deliver longer range than their competitors. So, China has a clear technological edge. It dominates the global EV market and it’s now trying to defend that position. This license requirement will hurt expansion plans. Say a Chinese EV maker wants to build a factory overseas. They will now face hurdles. If they want to partner with an overseas player, they will need Beijing’s permission. So this new requirement is essentially a barrier. China wants to control the market. Today 70 to 90% of the EV value chain is dominated by China. This includes battery supplies, the machines needed to make these batteries and also raw materials. In other words, China dominates all aspects of the battery trade. And now it wants to leverage this control. And this latest move fits a pattern. China has been imposing similar curbs for the past few years. They target rivals like the United States. They also target emerging economies like India. China has been throttling supplies to them. Look at the pattern. In 2023, China curbed the supplies of gallium and germanmanium. These minerals are important for EVs and electronics. Then last year in 2024, China extended this ban on graphite. Again, graphite is needed to make all kinds of batteries. And this year, Beijing stepped up the pressure. First by curbing supplies of rare earth magnets, then by imposing a shadow ban. We’ve told you about all of it on the show. Reports say China has nudged companies like Foxcon to pull out their staff. Foxcon, as you know, makes devices like the iPhone. Foxcon is Apple’s biggest supplier in the world. It is a Taiwanese company but its largest manufacturing facilities are in China. Recently Foxcon has expanded into India but now they’ve withdrawn their engineers from Indian factories. These were Chinese engineers. They were helping Foxcon step up facilities in India. They were asked to go back and reports say the Chinese government could be behind this move even though no official ban was announced. And now Beijing is using licenses to lock in supplies. When you connect these dots, you see the big picture. And that picture looks like a warning. China has flipped the script on globalization. It is weaponizing those same supply chains to scuttle potential challengers. And India in particular is vulnerable. India gets 75% of its lithium ion batteries from China. India gets raw materials and machinery from China. In 2022 alone, India imported Chinese machinery worth $1.5 billion. These were machines for battery production. And now China is locking up all these supplies behind license requirements and trade barriers. And Trump’s trade war has given Beijing the perfect cover. So while the US is imposing tariffs, China is quietly consolidating its advantage. [Music] First post now available in nine languages on YouTube. English $36 trillion French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish. Go to settings, click on audio track, and select the language of your choice. Be the first to know what’s happening around you in your first language. First post. [Music]