The Misleading Media Groupthink On China’s Renewable Energy
AP, New York Times, Wall Street Journal scramble to spin Iran War as Beijing winHeadlines in the April 13, 2026, Wall Street Journal and New York Times deceptively portray the Iran War as a win for China’s wind and solar industries.Ira Stoll
April 13, 2026"Never just read one newspaper" is one of my media literacy rules. Sometimes even that fails, as it did on Monday April 13, 2026, when the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both weighed in with suspiciously similar, and sadly unskeptical, stories claiming that the Iran war somehow provided vindication for China’s emphasis on wind and solar energy.
How’d the New York Times ("War Highlights China’s Renewables Lead") and the Wall Street Journal ("An Iran War Winner: China’s Clean Energy") wind up with the same bad takes on the same story on the same day? It’s likely that their editors were both reading the Associated Press, a wire service that drives newsroom agendas by providing a tip sheet in advance disclosing what stories the AP is working on. The AP had its own version of the same story, headlined, "Iran war’s global energy crisis sharpens China’s advantage in clean tech." Datelined Hong Kong, a China-controlled territory where journalists are imprisoned if they publish articles that the Chinese authorities disapprove of, the AP story begins, "China is poised to benefit from the Iran war as global energy disruptions accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean technologies and renewable power, industries that China dominates."
The gist of the story—that the Iran war somehow demonstrates that China is right about wind and solar energy—is a fantasy, not a fact. Even if you rely on China's own unreliable data, the International Energy Agency lists coal and coal products as 71 percent of China's energy production, and solar, wind, and other renewables combined at 5.4 percent.
Not everyone agrees that the Iran war is a win for China, energy wise.
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https://freebeacon.com/media/the-misleading-media-groupthink-on-chinas-renewable-energy/
