>A warlike country with a history of antagonism to China is probably less secure than countries that have chosen to behave like good neighbors.
That is naive. China will become imperialistic if given a chance. Look at how they treat their neighbors.
>If you feel like panel production is strategic
I don't necessarily. But many strategically important things suffer the same fate. We cannot compete with China and other low-wage countries without restructuring the monetary system and probably our lifestyles. The Chinese know this and have used the situation to hoover up production capacity for many things that are critical to national security.
>US has a substantial ability to produce panels [1], perhaps a useful strategy would be to consume those panels as much as possible, subsidizing production to make it a growth area.
It would make far more sense to simply ban the import of cheaper panels, and let those who need the panels pay the true cost. The reason is that you could apply the same logic to every offshore-made item, and these subsidies would make random people pay for stuff that random other people are using.
>I'm no economist but the above seems like a solid strategy to me. It would be most interesting to see the outcomes where a country pursued this strategy versus one that actively worked to marginalize solar, killing domestic production instead.
I don't think anyone is trying to kill their domestic solar industry in general. But these installations have to be justified somehow. If the domestic panels are not the cheapest/best option available, they won't be used.