The bad news: China is still building and operating coal plants by the dozens per year. The good news: The nation’s share of wind and solar power will rise to 40 percent of China’s total installed power generation capacity by the end of 2024, up from 36 percent at the end of 2023. What’s more, in 2023 the total installed capacity of power from non-fossil fuel sources had already exceeded 50 percent of the total generation capacity.

Clearly, Chinese leaders are fed up with their dreadfully polluted air. But the bigger motivation is almost certainly its effort to become the global leader in solar, wind and other renewable technologies that can be exported to countries around the world. Some have likened the emerging market for renewable energy technologies as tantamount to a second computer revolution. The United States dominated and was lavishly enriched by computer innovations during the world economy’s move from analog to digital technologies. China hopes to be in th