In the race to save the planet, Beijing is moving at a speed the West can’t match. China, the world’s biggest polluter, has rapidly transformed into its greatest green hope, rewriting the rules of the climate fight through sheer, top-down force. From enormous solar power farms to the total domination of the electric vehicle market, the ‘Green Dragon’ is outpacing us all. But this isn’t just about the climate, it’s about power. Is this a calculated move for national security and global dominance? Can a one-party state solve the climate crisis faster than a democracy, or are we trading one global dependency for another? We spoke with professor Alex Wang, in an attempt to unmask the reality of China’s rise to the stage of environmental fame.
Is Beijing saving the planet, or just trying to dominate it?
I would say neither. The key to understanding China’s green push is to recognize that it is fundamentally motivated by development and security concerns: the core political priorities of the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese leaders recognized about two decades ago that the environmental crisis and heavy reliance on fossil fuels would pose a threat to economic growth, energy security, social stability, and state legitimacy. ‘Green’ technologies offered a way to address multiple pressures at once.
This means that China is not acting this way out of pure altruism (“saving the planet”), but is also not explicitly driven by global domination. However, being the leader in green tech and trade does give China a lot of power. And China has, at times, been willing to use its economic power. For example in diplomatic conflicts over Taiwan, the South China Sea, or human rights.
In a system with so much top-down pressure, how many companies are just ‘greenwashing’ their way out of trouble?
Whenever companies driven by profit claim to be green, we should be skeptical and demand transparency. This is true in China just like anywhere else. That said, China has significantly strengthened its environmental rules over the past decade. Their new campaigns have targeted major polluters, inspections have become more systematic, and local officials are now judged on their environmental performance. At the same time, clean technology companies receive a lot of support, including government funding and easier access to markets.
China is still far from ‘green’ overall. It remains the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and resource consumer, but things are changing: air quality in cities has improved a lot since the mid-2010s. Total emissions have declined modestly in the last two years and may finally be leveling off.
Are there ‘tricks’ China uses to make people go green that we could use in the West without becoming an autocracy?
Rather than ‘tricks,’ China’s success comes from policy methods that democratic countries could also implement. These include steady funding for education and scientific research; strategic policy plans to support emerging green industries; and keeping policies stable over time. This last point is particularly relevant for the United States, where sudden changes in laws can make companies afraid to invest for the long term.
What other countries cannot easily copy is how China uses centralized authority, their top-down government, to ‘get to work’ on one goal. Still, many of the underlying tools China uses (like setting high standards, subsidies, and public investment) are widely available in free-market economies.
It seems like China changed the mindset of a billion people overnight. How?
It’s a misconception that China’s shift has happened overnight. The move toward greener government has actually been unfolding for about twenty years. A distinguishing feature of the Chinese approach is its top-down, Leninist governance structure. This allows the central government to set mandatory goals that every province, city, and state-owned company must follow. These goals are taken seriously because officials are evaluated on how well they meet them, and the government provides large-scale financial support in order to reach them.
At the same time, the system has also encourage competition among regions and companies that has driven innovation, speed, and scaling up. Moreover, the public’s view has changed because of what they’ve lived through, especially periods of severe air pollution. This created a social demand for stronger environmental protection. So, the shift reflects a combination of top-down policy, managed competition, and bottom-up pressure from citizens.
China controls almost all the minerals needed for batteries. Has the West simply traded its dependence on Middle Eastern oil for a dependence on Chinese minerals?
In the United States, the Democratic as well as the Republican party now agree that excessive dependence on China for critical minerals is a big risk. This concern has led to efforts to find these materials elsewhere and thereby diversify supply chains. For example by ‘domestic’ mining (in the US), partnerships with allies, and industrial government support.
However, the real problem isn’t just who owns the mines; it’s who controls the processing and refining of minerals. China is especially strong in these middle stages of the supply chain, where raw rocks are turned into high-tech materials. To reduce vulnerability and prevent becoming entirely dependent on China, Western countries don’t just need their own mines. They also need to scale up recycling, invest in developing new batteries that don’t need these rare materials, and build their own factories for refining and processing.
On Friday, 22nd of May, we continue this conversation on China’s rise in green development. We welcome professor Alex Wang at Pakhuis de Zwijger for a deep dive into his newest book: Chinese Global Environmentalism. Also joining the discussion will be China-experts Benjamin Rooij and Shiming Yang. Ready to discover the mind of the Green Dragon? Get your free tickets here!
