I do agree with you. China smartly used emerging green technology as part of its push for an economic sphere of influence, and has largely succeeded. Although Westerners generally hate the CCP's guts, this is one of those rare times that their interests align with humanity's overall.
Still, China won't be in a hurry to completely phase out coal anytime soon, and now nobody in America can say anything about it (then again, West Virginia is still addicted to coal anyway... )
Yea this is a question of damage control. My wife is worried about them attempting to remove abortion access in lock step, and now she isn't wrong to be afraid. Populism is toxic.
Also, all of the disinformation campaigns that worked to destabilize the US were vindicated by this election result, so you can expect similar interference in the Canadian election next year.