Based on the article you linked below, what happened is after the DOE developed the tech, they licensed it to a U.S. company that was started by the lead scientist. That company ended up violating the license by sublicensing to a Chinese company because it was cheaper and easier due to better supply chains and more willingness by other companies to invest in these technologies there. Typical American capitalism at work, sadly.

Meanwhile, “the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Energy lacked resources to properly monitor its licenses” and they never noticed this shit going down.

The primary tie in to “US politics” here is the underfunded government department that is incapable of enforcing its existing regulations, allowing capitalism to do what is best for money rather than what is best for Americans. In the last couple decades, where Republicans haven’t been able to wholesale remove regulations (which they also do plenty of) they’ve been using a strategy of defunding and dismantling agencies so that the regulations are toothless. This particular situation began in 2017, a period when of course this shit really accelerated. (Hell, the DOE specifically was targeted as useless by many Republicans at that time).