A few months ago, Chinese student Jiang Yurong’s commencement speech at Harvard University ignited heated debate on the Chinese internet.
Her remarks emphasised diversity, humanity and globalism. They were met with ridicule back home with some criticising them as empty and self-righteous. Others accused her of promoting so-called “western values”. In the context of today’s tense international geopolitics, she was even portrayed as a spokesperson for American interests.
Like many online controversies, the discussion soon faded. But the deeper problem it reflected has not gone away. In China’s public sphere, there is a widespread suspicion and resistance toward what are perceived as “elite discourses”.
The same sentiment also shapes discussions of climate change. In China, climate issues face a similar risk – of being dismissed as the self-indulgent rhetoric of a small elite, and the need to fight climate change being regarded as a narrative imposed by the west.
Overcoming this perception requires a climate discourse that puts Chinese citizens’ lived experiences and core interests at the centre. Rather than framing climate change as an abstract global issue, it should be rooted in China’s distinctive socio-political realities – economic livelihoods, national security, and environmental quality – issues that directly affect everyday life.
Two myths in China’s climate debate
In current Chinese public opinion, two common views on climate change stand out. The first is that:
“Climate change is natural, and global warming may even benefit China”
Proponents of this myth often cite historical climate records: elephants once roamed northern China, and the Tang Dynasty was warmer than today. So, they argue, there is little cause for alarm. Some even claim that warming could improve northern China’s cold climate, increase rainfall, and turn deserts into fertile farmland, thus restoring the “prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties”. Certain well-known scholars have echoed this view.
“Climate change is really about development, and responsibility lies with the west”
Another widely held perspective frames climate change entirely in terms of geopolitics and Sino-western rivalry. A well-known example is a widely circulated television interview from 2010, in which a prominent academician, when challenged about China’s rising carbon emissions, bluntly asked the reporter: “Are Chinese people not human?”
His point was that Chinese citizens should have the same right to development and carbon emissions as westerners – especially given per capita emissions at the time were still far lower in China. While this rebuttal to western criticism had some legitimacy, it was unfortunately often interpreted, particularly among nationalists, as evidence that climate discourse was merely a western political conspiracy.
The slow journey towards climate concern
Beyond these positions, the broader divergence is striking. Western societies show much greater public concern over climate issues, while in China it remains relatively low.
Climate change has become a central issue on the social agenda in many advanced economies. It is often viewed as an existential crisis, reflected in frequent protests that sometimes escalate into direct actions – blocking coal trains, disrupting traffic, and even vandalising museum artworks.
By contrast, public interest in China remains limited. This is despite government departments, research institutions and media platforms such as Dialogue Earth continuing to advance research and discussion on climate issues, with some success. For most Chinese citizens, climate change continues to rank far below employment, housing, medical care or education as a pressing concern.
This is not to suggest that China needs the kind of radical tactics seen in some western environmental movements. But the lack of public engagement undeniably poses challenges for sustaining momentum in climate action.
Development alone doesn’t explain the difference
One explanation for this divergence lies in levels of economic development. Several studies suggest that the perceived importance of climate change tends to increase with per capita income. In many developing countries, climate issues are often overshadowed by more immediate priorities, such as economic growth, education, healthcare and security.
Yet economic development alone does not fully explain this difference. Long before western countries reached China’s current average income, environmental movements had already flourished, laying the groundwork for later social mobilisation around climate change.
From Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in the 1960s, to the first Earth Day in 1970, to the anti-nuclear protests, and later the widespread attention to global warming sparked by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in the 2000s, environmental movements in the west evolved significantly over time.
As local environmental conditions improved and legislation became increasingly stringent, these movements gradually shifted their focus from combating “local pollution” to addressing the broader challenge of climate change. Driving this evolution were decades of grassroots activism, the vitality of NGOs and civil society, and the rise of political forces such as Green parties.
Making climate change resonate with the Chinese public
In China, strong state leadership and proactive engagement by industry to pursue economic opportunities have driven remarkable progress in the clean-energy transition. But to ensure the long-term sustainability of climate action, broader public awareness and support remain essential. Without public buy-in, difficult trade-offs between short- and long-term, visible and invisible interests could face significant resistance.
To make climate change discourse resonate more deeply with the public, it should be connected to issues that ordinary people already care about in the Chinese socio-political context. Three issues stand out:
Livelihoods and the economy
The public needs to recognise that key economic dynamics directly affect jobs, incomes and business opportunities. These include the growth of the new-energy sector, carbon emissions regulation and trading, and the EU’s forthcoming carbon levy.
National security in a broad sense
Climate change has significant implications for food, water and energy security, as well as risks from sea-level rise and extreme weather to critical infrastructure and human safety. These challenges, even if not immediately visible, are legitimate concerns for ordinary people and should be factored into their long-term planning.
Local environmental issues
Carbon reduction should be embedded within the broader framework of environmental protection, working in synergy with goals such as improved air quality and ecological restoration.
In short, for climate change to gain more traction among the Chinese public, it is necessary to develop a discourse rooted in local realities, one that tells climate stories in truly relatable and compelling ways.
