Can China Lead the World on Climate Change?

🎙️ Can China Lead the World on Climate Change? Green Soft Power, Coercive Environmentalism, and the Future of the Belt and Road What does it take to become a global climate leader?

In this episode of Mapping Global China Conversations, we speak with two leading scholars—Dr. Yixian Sun and Dr. Yifei Li—about China’s evolving role in environmental governance, its efforts to green the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the competing narratives of soft power and coercion in its global environmental strategy.

🌏 Drawing from international relations and sociology, the conversation bridges institutional analysis and everyday experiences—offering a comprehensive look at how Chinese actors shape global sustainability norms and how these efforts are received on the ground.

 

🔹 Our Guests:

Dr. Yixian Sun – Senior Lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath. Author of Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies (MIT Press, 2022).

Dr. Yifei Li – Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU Shanghai and Global Network Assistant Professor at NYU. Co-author (with Judith Shapiro) of China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet (Polity, 2020).

 

🔍 Discussion Topics:

✅ Can China Fill the Climate Leadership Vacuum? – What’s changed since the U.S. retreat from multilateral environmental leadership?

✅ Green Soft Power in Action – How is China using environmental initiatives to build influence in places like the UAE and Central Asia?

✅ Coercive Environmentalism – How do top-down mandates affect citizens’ environmental behavior and political engagement?

✅ Greening the BRI – Beyond vision statements, what concrete efforts and challenges define China’s sustainable infrastructure push?

✅ Digital & Green Convergence – What role does the Digital Silk Road play in China’s climate future?

✅ What Should China Do Next? – Insights from both scholars on how China can move from aspiration to global impact.

 

📌 Key Takeaways:

✔ China is positioning itself as a sustainability leader—but faces internal contradictions and external skepticism.

✔ "Green soft power" and “coercive environmentalism” reveal two sides of China’s environmental governance model.

✔ Small-scale, people-centered, and digitally enabled projects may define the next phase of the BRI.

✔ Trust-building, collaboration, and adaptive learning will be crucial for China’s global climate leadership.