Strategic narratives in China’s climate policy: analysing three phases in China’s discourse coalition

Zhang, Yunhan; Orbie, Jan

doi:10.1080/09512748.2019.1637366

Cited by 23 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…11] introduced the following stages in the communication process associated with strategic narratives: formation, projection, reception, and feedback. When studying the formation of strategic narratives, scholars often examine the role of various actors in this process, which mainly includes governing elites, mass media, and epistemic communities [Zhang, Orbie, 2019]. In the studies of the projection of strategic narratives, attention is paid to the infrastructure employed to spread the needed information.…”

Section: Strategic Narratives: a Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Narratives in China’s Bid for Discursive Hegemony

Krivokhizh,

Soboleva

2023

IORJ

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Power in international relations implies not only the possession of outstanding material resources, but also the ability to proposeand popularize attractive ideas, values, and norms and thus control discourse. Scholars note that during the presidencyof Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has joined the struggle for discursive hegemony. This change in China’sforeign policy requires systematic study, for which the concept of a strategic narrative has analytical value. As defined byA. Miskimmon, B. O’Loughlin and L. Roselle, strategic narratives “are a means for political actors to construct a sharedmeaning of the past, present, and future of international politics to shape the behavior of domestic and international actors.”This article provides an overview of strategic narratives as a conceptual lens to study international relations, summarizesthe existing research of strategic narratives in general and regarding the Chinese case in particular, and suggestsdirections for future studies. The core idea of Chinese strategic narratives is that the PRC is a new type of great power that iscapable of changing the existing unjust and conflict-prone world order. At the same time, China does not propose to radicallyrevise the international system – it portrays the world as divided into great powers and the rest. Overall, China’s strategicnarratives are characterized by a duality that reflects the complexity of China’s foreign policy interests and its attempt toexpand the field of opportunity. Aimed to support different agendas, narratives include references both to the “century ofhumiliation” and the more recent successful experience of China’s modernization. The content of the narratives suggeststhat China is mainly trying to attract the developing countries of the Global South and thus form its own group of followers.However, there is significant variation in communication processes, namely the formation, projection, and reception ofChina’s strategic narratives. The study of this variation, as well as the analysis of the effectiveness of Chinese narratives, isa promising direction for future research.

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Section: Strategic Narratives: a Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Narratives in China’s Bid for Discursive Hegemony

Krivokhizh,

Soboleva

2023

IORJ

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“…In the period 2015–2020, China accounted for about 40% of total global growth in renewable energy capacity 19 . Zhang and Orbie (2019) have noted that the narrative of China as the victim of “ecological imperialism” has given way to a new “torchbearer” narrative, which emphasizes "Chinese solutions" based on its unique experiences.…”

Section: Narratives Of “Climate Nationalism” In the Asia Pacificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate nationalisms: Beyond the binaries of good and bad nationalism

Kashwan

Liu

Das

2022

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate nationalism has attracted renewed interest among scholars and analysts of international climate politics, security studies, and international relations more broadly. However, the most prominent arguments about climate nationalism follow a storyline of “good nationalism” or “bad nationalism”—a “positive civic nationalism” versus a “destructive ethnic nationalism.” In this article, we review these debates by drawing on prominent strands of scholarship on climate nationalism, mapped onto three key aspects: climate securitization, political populism, and Civic nationalism. To further ground our review in real‐world politics outside of the United States and Western Europe, we offer a snapshot of climate nationalism narratives deployed by political elites in three large countries in the Asia‐Pacific: Australia, India, and China. Our review shows that considering the multiscalar, multisectoral, and global scope of climate action, it may be futile to look for a conclusive answer to the question of whether nationalism is good or bad for fostering effective and enduring transformations suitable for a climate‐changed world. Instead, we recommend a research agenda focused on investigating the myriad ways in which political and economic elites fuse discourses of nationalism with various aspects of climate politics and climate action. A proper understanding of elite interests, discourses, and strategies, in ways that account for varied national and regional political and economic contexts, we argue is crucial for a fuller understanding of how narratives of nationalism may affect climate action. This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance Climate and Development > Knowledge and Action in Development Policy and Governance > National Climate Change Policy

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“…Clearly, the successful implementation of China's climate policies at a national and local level is of utmost importance for the mitigation of the global climate crisis due to China's large economy, huge population, and status as a rising power. In 2017, China's President Xi Jinping declared that the state would take the driver's seat in international climate politics, this being the first time that China had formally claimed leadership in the climate negotiations (Zhang and Orbie 2021). As a sign of the role shift, in September 2020, the President announced China's enhanced pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 (Xi 2020); and in 2021, China published an action plan to achieve that target as a part of the party-state's "1 + N policy framework."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applicability of leadership modes outside the negotiation framework: insights from China

Hurri

Kopra

2023

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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Drawing insights from a qualitative content analysis of China’s national climate reports between 2016 and 2019, this article examines the extent to which classical leadership typologies introduced by Oran Young, Arild Underdal, and Raino Malnes in the early 1990s have explanatory power outside of international climate negotiation frameworks. Mode by mode, we assess the strengths and weaknesses of four classical leadership modes—directional, ideational, instrumental, and structural—to grasp the manifestation of international climate leadership in a domestic context. While the analysis points out some substantial weaknesses in classical leadership modes, it indicates that China has taken consistent efforts to offer climate leadership in a domestic context. Given the huge gap between the leadership literature and the planetary reality; however, the article concludes that the key shortcoming of the leadership literature is that it tends to focus exclusively on the negotiation phase of international climate politics. Therefore, prospective studies on climate leadership have to pay more attention to the locus of leadership.

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Strategic narratives in China’s climate policy: analysing three phases in China’s discourse coalition

Cited by 23 publications

References 45 publications

Strategic Narratives in China’s Bid for Discursive Hegemony

Strategic Narratives in China’s Bid for Discursive Hegemony

Climate nationalisms: Beyond the binaries of good and bad nationalism

Applicability of leadership modes outside the negotiation framework: insights from China

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