China’s race to electrification

In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Yuyun Zhan sits down with Alicia García-Herrero and Ben McWilliams to explore China’s quest for energy self-sufficiency and especially its attempt to become an “electrostate”. Can a country transform its vast energy needs into a strategic advantage; and what does it mean for the world if that country is China? And where does Europe stand in this race?

Relevant research

• Alicia García-Herrero and Haoxin Mu, China can decarbonise the world – but even that won’t fix its overcapacity problem (bruegel.org/analysis/china-can-decarbonise-wor…), Bruegel Analysis, 25 September 2025

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European Clean Tech Tracker (european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org), Bruegel dataset, Compiled by Marie Jugé, Ugnė Keliauskaitė, Ben McWilliams and Simone Tagliapietra, last updated 3 September 2025

• Heussaff, C. and G. Zachmann (2025) ‘Upgrading Europe’s electricity grid is about more than just money (bruegel.org/policy-brief/upgrading-europes-ele…)’, Policy Brief 04/2025, Bruegel

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How we made it: will China be the first electrostate? (ft.com/content/e1a232c7-52a0-44dd-a13b-c4af54e…) Financial Times, 20 May 2025

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound of Economics. ZhōngHuá Mundus is a newsletter by Bruegel, bringing you monthly analysis of China in the world, as seen from Europe. Sign up now (bruegel.secure.force.com/events/UpdateAcc?sf=1…) to receive it in your mailbox!