China goes green: coercive environmentalism for a troubled planet

For the uninitiated observing China from the outside, the country seems to have achieved a remarkable transition in environmental issues, including taking a stance to reject unjust dumping of international waste within its borders and assuming an international leadership role in climate action when the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2020. These state-led successes from the longest-standing authoritarian regime in the world have raised questions about the comparative inability of liberal democracies to respond to systemic climate and environmental risks. Yet this simplified story masks deeper tensions in the relationship between the self-preservation tactics of authoritarian states and environmental goals. As the Chinese Communist Party marks its centenary this year, questions loom about the state's ability to maintain legitimacy in the face of the country's growing economic inequality, its capricious role in global development and rampant toxic air pollution. It would be hard to find two thinkers...