China's Rhetorical Response on "EV Overcapacity": An Ontological Security Pespective

China’s electric vehicle (EV) exports have faced intensified international criticism, with Western powers alleging that China is saturating global markets with heavily subsidized industrial overcapacity. In this article, we argue that this “overcapacity” thesis constitutes more than an economic grievance; it represents an ontological threat that challenges the legitimacy of China’s modernization narrative. By analyzing a corpus of 179 official documents through the lens of Ontological Security, we examine how the Chinese state manages this anxiety through discursive contestation. Our analysis reveals a dual mechanism of identity stabilization. First, China engages in narrative restoration (the “Self”), anchoring its identity in “market rationality” and “proactive benevolence” to reaffirm its status as a responsible global climate leader. Second, China deploys negative othering (the “Other”) not merely to deflect blame, but to pathologize Western critics. By reframing the “overcapacity” critique as a symptom of Western “decline anxiety” and “protectionist insecurity”, China tentatively externalizes the threat. We conclude that Beijing’s response is a strategic effort to secure its biographical continuity as a confident, modern power while constructing the West as an anxious, irrational Other.