Trump falsely claims China does not produce wind energy
- Published on January 14, 2026 at 19:38
- 4 min read
- By Manon JACOB, AFP USA
As US President Donald Trump hosted energy executives at the White House in early January to encourage investment in Venezuela's oil industry, he repeated his disdain for "windmills," falsely claiming China mostly exports the turbines it makes and has few, if any, domestic wind energy operations. But China is the world's leading wind energy producer and its turbine manufacturing is largely focused on at-home demand.
"Just about all of the windmills are made in China -- the structures," Trump said on January 9. "All you have to do is say to China: 'How many windmill areas do you have in China?' So far, they are not able to find any," he claimed.
"They make them and sell them to suckers like Europe. And suckers like the United States before. They are the worst form of energy," the US president concluded.
The US president's comments reverberated across the world in several languages including Polish and French.
Trump has long complained that wind turbines ruin views and are expensive.
In addition to his order attempting to ban new wind farm permits, his administration moved to block all federal loans for wind energy. "They're losers. They lose money. They destroy your landscape. They kill your birds," he said on January 9.
But China is the top wind power market in the world with a strong domestic network in operation, experts say.
Matthew Burgess, an assistant professor at the Department of Economics College of Business at the University of Wyoming (archived here), told AFP on January 12 that China is the world's number one producer of wind energy.
When it comes to wind's share of a national grid "Denmark wins that one, and the US is slightly ahead of China," he said.
According to the latest report by think tank Ember Energy, China's wind generation in 2024 amounted to 992 terawatt-hours (TWh), which is equivalent to 40 percent of the global wind generation (archived here).
Majority domestic supplies
As for manufacturing operations, Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Finnish non-profit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (archived here), said Chinese exports represent a small fraction compared to domestic installations.
"Yes, China manufactures the clear majority of wind turbines in the world, but only to supply its domestic market, which dwarfs that of the entire rest of the world," he told AFP on January 12.
The latest data provided by the Global Wind Energy Council shows the majority of top wind turbine suppliers in 2024 were based in China, but 94 percent of Chinese installations remain in their home market (archived here).
"European turbine manufacturers still dominate the market outside of China, the complete opposite of the picture Trump was painting," he added.
Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering (archived here), said China is outpacing the United States in its transition to renewables.
"Currently, the US is on track to get to 100 percent renewables across all energy sectors only by the year 2148 due to its slow progress. China, at its current rate of installation of wind-water-solar, is on track to get there 100 years earlier, by 2051," he estimates, based on his latest research on the topic (archived here).
China continues to build out transmission lines to existing installations, but per Jacobson's analysis, as of late 2025, it already has the capacity to produce nearly the equivalent of the entire US power demand with its solar and wind network alone.
Halted projects
Trump halted the development of multiple wind projects since his return to office, including Revolution Wind, a nearly finished installation off the coast of Rhode Island. But a US federal judge recently cleared the way for its construction to resume.
The park of 65 turbines should provide power for more than 350,000 homes when complete, according to its manufacturing company, Orsted (archived here).
Trump conceded during his January 9 statement that his government may "get forced to do something" because of decisions made during former president Joe Biden's administration but reiterated his unwillingness to allow new wind projects in the country.
But according to Burgess of the University of Wyoming, federal policies, including Trump's, will not "drastically alter US emissions and the pace of energy system change," pointing to global market forces and state legislation as the main drivers (archived here).
AFP has debunked other claims about wind turbines and conservation questions, here, here and here.
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