Lithium has been called “White Gold”. It is a critical component of the future of power storage, and a prized possession in a potential trade war - a battle over batteries. Batteries will be the heart of the world's post-fossil-fuel future. Right now, China dominates the battery market, from raw materials, to research, to manufacturing. Wary of Chinese supremacy, the US and EU want to break Beijing's grip on the battery market. Can they do it? And what impact will the brewing battery battle have on all of us?

China’s dominance is clear when it comes to powering electric vehicles. The U.S. lags in most steps of the battery-making process, from sourcing raw materials to assembling components. The U.S. government is spending billions of dollars to take on China’s dominance in EV batteries. WSJ explores whether the U.S. can overcome these disadvantages.

Mexico is seeing a manufacturing boom amid US-China trade tensions. More American companies are outsourcing factory operations to Mexico - with, among other reasons, the need to de-risk supply chains. But more Chinese corporations are also investing billions in Mexico as a production base to get closer to regional consumers - a practice called nearshoring - and to get around US tariffs imposed on Chinese exports since the 2018 Trump era. Since 2023, China has overtaken the US as Latin America’s top trading partner.

About the show: As de-risking deepens, China’s economy loses billions in investments. Is this the end of made-in-China, and the rise of new manufacturing powerhouses like India, Indonesia, and Mexico? What is the new form of globalisation that is emerging?