China Uses Climate Policy to Fuel Propaganda Efforts

China’s climate leadership push blends propaganda with strategic diplomacy, report finds

China is strategically positioning itself as a global climate leader through a sophisticated propaganda campaign that aims to fill the void left by the United States’ retreat from environmental leadership, according to new research.

While Beijing has made tangible contributions to climate action—including reducing carbon emissions and advancing electric vehicle and renewable energy technologies—its accompanying narrative-building efforts have largely gone unexamined until now.

A December report from the Taipei-based Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology titled “Unveiling the Hidden Agenda Behind China’s Green Ambitions” analyzed 123 Chinese state media articles published primarily after 2020, revealing Beijing’s dual-track approach to climate messaging.

“Perceived Chinese climate leadership would be important, because it could encourage more countries to collaborate with and depend on China,” the report states. This influence could promote an authoritarian model of environmental governance while potentially pressuring climate-vulnerable states—many of which maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan—to accept China’s territorial claims in exchange for climate support.

Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized this commitment at an April meeting on climate and just transition: “However the world may change, China will not slow down its climate actions, will not reduce its support for international cooperation, and will not cease its efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind.”

The report identified distinct approaches for domestic and international audiences. Chinese-language coverage tends to be defensive, emphasizing China’s contributions while reinforcing the regime’s legitimacy. In contrast, English-language content adopts a more offensive stance, often criticizing the United States, particularly regarding critical minerals.

“While Chinese-language coverage of critical minerals rarely frames the issue in terms of US–China rivalry, when it does, the focus is on state ownership,” the researchers note. “This reinforces national sovereignty and control, and portrays China as a responsible international actor valuing multilateral diplomacy.”

The propaganda consistently incorporates broader national narratives aligned with foreign policy objectives. Terms like “a community with a shared future for mankind” and “Xi Jinping thought on ecological civilisation” appear repeatedly across publications, projecting China’s image as a global climate leader while highlighting its achievements and contributions.

This narrative strategy serves dual purposes: bolstering domestic legitimacy while subtly presenting China’s top-down governance model as an effective template for other nations seeking to accelerate their own climate and energy transitions.

For Taiwan, the implications are particularly concerning. The research found numerous references to the one-China principle embedded within diplomatic statements related to climate action, suggesting Beijing may leverage climate cooperation to pressure countries into switching diplomatic recognition.

While no direct evidence links climate cooperation to diplomatic switches from Taiwan to China, the report highlights a notable pattern: since 2016, nine of the ten countries that severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized China rank in the bottom 50 percent of the ND-GAIN Country Index, indicating high vulnerability to climate change. When Kiribati switched recognition to China in 2019, for example, Beijing explicitly committed to supporting the island nation’s climate adaptation efforts.

“We therefore infer that climate-related issues have become a notable area of emphasis in many of such countries’ bilateral agreements with Beijing,” the researchers conclude.

The report acknowledges China’s legitimate climate contributions but warns that other nations must carefully weigh the strategic implications as they develop their own environmental policies. As climate change intensifies as both a global challenge and geopolitical battleground, Beijing’s green diplomacy represents a sophisticated blend of genuine climate action and strategic self-interest that demands closer scrutiny from the international community.