Media in the the west often relay information on Chinese technologies differently than they relate information on US technology companies. This bias is obvious to those who look for it. Let’s take the view of mainstream western media on the outlook of Tesla as a tool to fight climate change.
The west loves stories of western progress on the topic of climate change. On the 24th of October, 2013, The UK news media outlet The Guardian posted an article entitled “Elon Musk: Oil Campaign Against Electric Cars is Like Big Tobacco Lobbying” by Adam Vaughan.1 This wasn’t an opinion piece This was a article in Lifestyle section. The article paint Elon as heroic, Adam writes that “Musk, who is said to have inspired the character of the charismatic genius Tony Stark in the Iron Man films, does not think governments are doing enough to support the electrification of cars.” Adam also takes the position through his support of Musk that “Attacks on electric cars by the oil industry are on a par with misinformation campaigns promoted by big tobacco companies and vested interests undermining climate science,” citing Musk. The tone of the article is that Musk is a savior of the global environment and that Tesla’s are the sacrament.
The central theme is that oil is at odds with EVs, and that western media supported EVs and the enviroment over the oil giants. But that’s not the narrative when China is the source of EVs, tackling big oil. The narrative becomes something different in the keystrokes of western journalists.
Turn the page to 2024, in a world where China now manuafactured 76% of the world’s Electric Vehicles. Bloomberg published an article on the topic of EVs and big oil. Did they exclaim the CEO’s of China’s BYD and Geely are geniuses and super-heros? Did they praise China’s efforts for cleaning up the world’s air? Any positivity at all? The article published on November 28th, 2024 instead is entitled “China’s EV Boom Threatens to Push Gasoline Demand Off a Cliff.”2 The implication is that of a threat posed by China to the Oil Giant’s bottom line. The article lays out the bleak future for the oil industry in light of China’s EVs rollout. It even argues China’s rollout will “erode a major pillar of consumption,” that being of China’s use of gasoline. But at no point in the article is China’s role in reducing greenhouse gases discussed or analysed. Just the economic downturn for oil giants amid the boom of Chinese EVs.
Western media bias when China does something is not embraced in the same way as when the exact same thing is done by a western agent. When Tesla was moving into the EV market, the narrative was that Tesla was saving the planet. Now, that Chinese firms are doing it faster and better, the narrative is anything western mainstream media think may stick as an accusation. This is the behavior of losers, making excuses for failure, excuses which make no sense under the slightest scrutiny.
The Shared Future Institute 
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