https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XSyL!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fecb94c-f11e-4a9c-88be-9fd47d1620cd_736x569.png Headlines in the April 13, 2026, Wall Street Journal and New York Times deceptively portray the Iran War as a win for China’s wind and solar industries. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal recently published suspiciously similar stories claiming the Iran war had vindicated China’s investments in wind and solar energy. “How’d the New York Times (’War Highlights China’s Renewables Lead‘) and the Wall Street Journal (’An Iran War Winner: China’s Clean Energy‘) wind up with the same bad takes on the same story on the same day?” asks the Free Beacon‘s Ira Stoll. “It’s likely that their editors were both reading the Associated Press, a wire service that drives newsroom agendas by providing a tip sheet in advance disclosing what stories the AP is working on.” Stoll writes: The AP had its own version of the same story, headlined, “Iran war’s global energy crisis sharpens China’s advantage in clean tech.” Datelined Hong Kong, a China-controlled territory where journalists are imprisoned if they publish articles that the Chinese authorities disapprove of, the AP story begins, “China is poised to benefit from the Iran war as global energy disruptions accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean technologies and renewable power, industries that China dominates.” The gist of the story—that the Iran war somehow demonstrates that China is right about wind and solar energy—is a fantasy, not a fact. Even if you rely on China’s own unreliable data, the International Energy Agency lists coal and coal products as 71 percent of China’s energy production, and solar, wind, and other renewables combined at 5.4 percent. The AP’s questionable business relationships may explain how the piece was published in the first place. The AP has a “partnership“ with the China News Service, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The AP’s “climate desk,” meanwhile, is funded by left-wing philanthropies like the Hewlett Foundation, which also happens to give to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. A researcher for the institute, Sam Reynolds, is quoted in the AP piece as saying, “China’s approach to energy sector development and geopolitics has been completely validated by the Iran conflict.” READ MORE: The Misleading Media Groupthink On China’s Renewable Energy