The Beijing Model Meets the Brussels Effect

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For years, Europe and China embodied rival development and energy-transition models. Europe was primarily committed to markets, common rules, and multilateral institutions, whereas China emphasized industrial policy, infrastructure investment, and manufacturing. Europe produced regulations that often became global benchmarks (the “Brussels Effect”). China produced factories.

But this distinction is dissolving. As Europe races to rebuild its industrial base, China is focusing more on influencing international standards and governance frameworks. As European policymakers study Beijing’s industrial strategy, Chinese leaders are realizing what Europe learned long ago: Lasting power comes not only from making technologies, but from writing the rules that govern them.

These trends reflect a change in the composition of geoeconomic power. The decisive question is no longer who controls resources, manufactures products, or leads in each technology. It is who governs the value chains through which the next energy and technological transition will unfold. Far from merely linking factories, those chains also organize finance, logistics, digital infrastructure, standards, and entire industrial ecosystems, forming the frameworks through which economic power is exercised.

After two decades of building the world’s largest ecosystem for solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and power grids, China has concluded that industrial leadership is not enough, leading it to invest in shaping global rules. The clearest sign of this change is institutional. Through a new Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, China is convening technical committees to set standards for photovoltaics, hydrogen, energy storage, high-voltage transmission, grid intelligence, and carbon accounting.

Source: Wikipedia