Trump is mistaken: China is a wind power giant
Contrary to US President Trump’s Davos comments on Chinese wind farms, China’s wind power is a central pillar of its energy transition, with wind farms dotted around the country’s northern and northwestern regions, and in recent times, along its southeastern coastlines too. But these efforts are not without its challenges, such as an entrenched top-down approach and the difficulty of turning wind capacity into efficiently used, reliably transmitted clean power. EAI deputy director Chen Gang shares his insights.
China is the world leader in wind energy. It has the largest installed wind capacity, produces most of the world’s wind turbines and is building wind farms at a scale unmatched anywhere else.
Claims that China ‘doesn’t have wind farms’ are simply incorrect
In January 2026, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, US President Donald Trump questioned China’s wind energy achievements, suggesting China mainly relies on fossil fuels and nuclear power while exporting wind turbines to others. The reality on the ground is the opposite: wind power is a central pillar of China’s energy transition and industrial strategy.
At the same time, China’s wind story is not just one of unqualified success. Rapid expansion has also exposed political, institutional and geographic constraints, from grid bottlenecks to uneven regional demand and integration challenges. China leads the world in building wind capacity, but turning that capacity into efficiently used, reliably transmitted clean power remains an ongoing and complex task.
This manufacturing prowess has enabled China to drive down the cost of wind energy, making it more competitive both domestically and internationally.
China’s wind power generation sector is a testament to the country’s capacity for rapid industrialisation and infrastructure development. By the end of 2025, China’s total wind capacity reached approximately 640 gigawatts (GW), more than three times that of the US and accounting for about half of the world’s wind power generation.
In 2024 alone, China added 76 GW of new wind energy capacity — a figure that dwarfs the annual additions of any other country. According to the Energy Information Administration, wind now accounts for 16% of all electric generation in China, a share that continues to grow as the country pursues its ambitious decarbonisation goals.
China’s wind energy leadership is not limited to installed capacity. The country is also the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, with its companies dominating the global supply chain. This manufacturing prowess has enabled China to drive down the cost of wind energy, making it more competitive both domestically and internationally. The Jiuquan Wind Power Base (also known as the Gansu Wind Farm), with over 7,000 turbines and more than 10 GW of generating capacity, stands as the largest onshore wind farm complex in the world — a symbol of China’s commitment to scaling up renewable energy.
The “Three North” region, comprising the north (Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei), northwest (Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi), and northeast (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang) — is the heartland of China’s wind energy boom.
Geographical spread of wind farms in China
Contrary to President Trump’s suggestion, wind farms are not only present in China — they are widespread and highly visible, especially in the country’s northern and northwestern regions. In recent years, more offshore wind turbines have been installed along China’s southeastern coastlines.
In China’s tropical island of Hainan, low-carbon electricity capacity like wind and nuclear has been added to power energy-guzzling computing hubs and data centres. The geographic distribution of wind farms reflects both the natural endowment of wind resources and the political economy of energy development in China.
The “Three North” region, comprising the north (Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei), northwest (Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi), and northeast (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang) — is the heartland of China’s wind energy boom. Inner Mongolia alone has a technically exploitable wind power capacity of 381.7 GW, followed by Gansu (82.2 GW) and Xinjiang (64.8 GW).
In 2025, Inner Mongolia accounted for about 16% of China’s total installed wind power capacity, the largest share among all provinces. The region’s vast, sparsely populated landscapes and strong, consistent winds make it ideal for large-scale wind farm development.
The central government’s ability to mobilise resources, coordinate large-scale projects, and set ambitious targets has been a key driver of wind energy expansion.
While the north and northwest dominate in terms of capacity, the government is increasingly encouraging the spread of wind farms to eastern and central provinces. This shift is motivated by the need to reduce curtailment (the wasting of wind power due to grid limitations) and to bring renewable energy closer to major population and industrial centres. Provinces such as Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hebei in the east are now seeing significant offshore wind farm development, often in combination with solar power projects, as part of integrated “new energy” bases.
Institutional and political context: strengths and challenges
China’s wind energy success is rooted in a unique blend of state-driven industrial policy, central planning, and massive public investment. The Renewable Energy Law (2005, amended 2009), the Wind Power Concession Programme, and successive Five-Year Plans have provided the policy framework and financial incentives necessary for the sector’s explosive growth. The central government’s ability to mobilise resources, coordinate large-scale projects, and set ambitious targets has been a key driver of wind energy expansion.
However, the same centralised, top-down approach that has enabled rapid growth also creates significant challenges. China’s energy sector is characterised by a complex web of bureaucratic politics, vested interests and central-local tensions. The “Big Five” state-owned power companies — originally focused on coal-fired generation — have increasingly entered the wind and solar sectors. Yet when conflicts arise between their traditional (coal) and new (renewable) businesses, the established coal interests often prevail, stifling the commercial viability of renewables in many localities.
Local governments, motivated by economic growth and employment, sometimes resist central mandates to prioritise renewables, especially when these threaten local coal industries or when wind power projects face grid bottlenecks and curtailment. The result is an uneven pattern of implementation, with some provinces enthusiastically embracing wind energy while others lag behind or even undermine central policies.
This supply-side focus has led to overcapacity and high curtailment rates, particularly in the north and northwest, where wind resources are abundant but demand is low, and transmission infrastructure is inadequate.
The prioritisation of “sufficiency” (building more capacity) over “efficiency” (making full use of existing capacity) is a legacy of China’s planning economy and a consequence of slow energy marketisation. This supply-side focus has led to overcapacity and high curtailment rates, particularly in the north and northwest, where wind resources are abundant but demand is low, and transmission infrastructure is inadequate. In some years, curtailment rates in these regions have been among the highest in the world, resulting in significant waste of renewable energy.
The central government’s efforts to promote wind energy are often complicated by the decentralised nature of policy implementation in China. Since the post-Mao reforms, local governments have gained considerable financial and administrative autonomy, giving them both the incentive and the means to pursue local economic interests — even when these conflict with national environmental goals. The result is a fragmented system in which central directives are sometimes ignored, selectively implemented, or even actively resisted at the local level.
A closer look at Donald Trump’s claim reveals that China does have numerous wind farms, but many of them may not be operating at full capacity. Unlike in some Western countries, where environmental NGOs and civic activism play a significant role in shaping energy policy, China’s political system leaves little room for independent advocacy.
This lack of bottom-up pressure means that wind and solar power do not always have a decisive edge over environmentally controversial alternatives such as hydropower or nuclear...
Societal forces — including NGOs, social media and opinion leaders — are largely marginalised in the policy process and can only exert limited influence. This lack of bottom-up pressure means that wind and solar power do not always have a decisive edge over environmentally controversial alternatives such as hydropower or nuclear, especially in the context of power oversupply and transmission bottlenecks.
China’s wind energy future: plans and prospects
Despite these challenges, China’s commitment to wind energy remains strong. During the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), China aims to significantly accelerate wind power development, with annual new installations projected at no less than 120 GW. This initiative aims to increase total cumulative wind capacity to 1,300 GW by 2030, supporting decarbonisation and long-term goals of 5,000 GW by 2060, the year by which China aims for carbon neutrality.
The government is investing heavily in ultra-high-voltage transmission lines to connect remote wind farms to major demand centres, and is promoting the integration of wind, solar, and energy storage to enhance grid stability and reduce curtailment.
China’s wind energy sector is also increasingly oriented toward domestic demand, rather than export-led growth. As the country’s electricity demand stabilises and its energy system becomes more market-driven, the focus is shifting from simply building more capacity to making better use of existing resources and integrating renewables more effectively into the grid.
President Trump’s remarks at Davos reflected a misconception about China’s energy landscape. A reality check on his judgment about whether China has wind farms shows that China does indeed have numerous wind farms, although many may not be operating at full capacity right now.
Far from lacking wind farms, China is the world’s preeminent wind energy power — both in terms of installed capacity and manufacturing. The spread of wind farms across the country, especially in the north, northwest and eastern coastal areas, is a visible testament to China’s industrial and technological capabilities. However, the country does need to improve the efficiency of using these wind turbines to balance economic growth with environmental protection.
Looking ahead, China’s ability to realise the full potential of its wind energy resources will depend not only on continued investment and policy support, but also on deeper reforms to its energy governance system, greater marketisation, and more effective integration of renewables into the national grid. If these challenges can be addressed, China will not only maintain its leadership in wind energy, but also set a powerful example for the rest of the world in the transition to a low-carbon future.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the NUS NOL Fellowship for this research.
