On June 12th, at Munich Airport in Germany, a senior executive from a Chinese photovoltaic company was arrested by the German government shortly after disembarking from the plane. They were on their way to attend the Munich International Solar Technology Expo, the largest PV technology expo in the world. This scene reminded me of another incident that took place on December 1st, 2018, when Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested by Canadian authorities immediately after landing in Canada. These two events share a high degree of similarity, and behind them lies fierce industrial competition. Meng Wanzhou's arrest in Canada was due to Huawei's threat to U.S. technological dominance, breaking the Western monopoly on communication technology. The arrest of the Chinese PV executive in Germany, on the other hand, was because Chinese PV companies have become too powerful. China's dominance in the global PV market far surpasses that of Huawei's 5G, and it can be described as invincible. Looking at the world as a whole, Chinese PV is a terrifying force without any competitors. All other countries in the world combined cannot match China alone. Let me provide you with some startling figures. First, in terms of technological patents, there are a total of 150,000 global PV technology patents, with Chinese companies holding 120,000 of them, accounting for 80% of all patents. Second, the top ten PV companies globally are all Chinese companies, possessing comprehensive monopolistic advantages from raw materials to production equipment. What does that mean? It is equivalent to China simultaneously possessing leading-edge technologies throughout the entire chip industry chain, including chip materials, chip manufacturing, chip packaging, chip design, and lithography. Chinese PV has a market share of over 60% in the United States and reached a peak of 95% in the European Union, while the EU's domestic PV component capacity accounted for only 3%. So, how did Chinese PV achieve a breakthrough despite the containment by the US and the West?
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