As always, many thanks for your insights, as you go for the scientific facts, as opposed to geopolitically nuanced, anti-China rhetoric. As you have remarked on several occasions, the main reason China leads in several areas of scientific endeavour including electric cars and batteries is because of self-reliance and being politically forced out of the game. The irony is that China recognises the first and foremost government responsibility is to the citizenry, not hegemony. Internal, middle-class demand is burgeoning and growing, and only so much can be imported, even were there to be a free market agreement with the rest of the world! The Chinese balance of trade would go through the floor and bankrupt the economy via imports. Thus, local manufacture and innovation has always been the key, reaching right back to the 1960s, despite the failures of the Great Leap Forward in the nascent attempt to industrialise the nation.