In the Shadow of the Dragon

ELEVENChina Moves Ahead on Clean Energy

Several countries in Europe, most notably Germany, have been the solar industries’ most stalwart supporters. It is no surprise that 66 percent of our revenues were generated from shipments to European customers. . . .

—Dr. Zhengrong Shi, founder, chairman, and CEO of Suntech,China’s largest producer of photovoltaic solar panels

THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING Zhengrong Shi’s birth looked less than promising. Shi was born in 1963 on Yangzhong Island in a small farming community where the conditions were desperate in the wake of what came to be known as China’s Great Famine, the catastrophic follow-up to the Great Leap Forward. In the three years leading up to Shi’s birth, more than 20 million people had starved ...