"A few months ago, Chinese student Jiang Yurong’s commencement speech at Harvard University ignited a 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.

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."

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