Essay by Eric Worrall
… there is a widespread suspicion and resistance toward what are perceived as “elite discourses” …
To make the climate issue resonate in China, root it in local realities
Climate discourse must connect with jobs, security and everyday life if it is to win public support.
By Tan Hao
Sept. 17, 2025A 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”.
…
Climate change has become a central issue on the social agenda in many advanced economies. It is often viewed as an existential crisis, reflected in frequent protests that sometimes escalate into direct actions – blocking coal trains, disrupting traffic, and even vandalising museum artworks.
By contrast, public interest in China remains limited. This is despite government departments, research institutions and media platforms such as Dialogue Earth continuing to advance research and discussion on climate issues, with some success. For most Chinese citizens, climate change continues to rank far below employment, housing, medical care or education as a pressing concern.
…
Read more: https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/to-make-the-climate-issue-resonate-in-china-root-it-in-local-realities/
The full article mentions some people think global warming will improve life in China. They’ve got a point – provinces like the near subarctic Chinese province Heilongjiang, which shares a border with Siberia, could use some global warming in winter.
Frankly it’s a good thing China are skeptical of Western climate crisis narratives, good for all of us. Everyone believing the same falsehoods at the same time would be putting all of humanity’s eggs in the same basket – a global disaster when the basket is dropped.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Chinese Dismiss Climate Issues as Elitist, “Western Values”
This is very, very awkward; I agree with that statement simply because it is true. They are “Luxury Beliefs“, beliefs that only those of wealth, position and some degree of middle class+ status can afford to have and pursue. The joke in the UK is in the names of XR, JSO, Youth Demand activists, for example…
Edred [Whittingham] Snooker protest Fine working class name, that.
Cressida [Gethin] – M25 protest.
Indigo [Rumbelow] – Another M25 protest.
Everybody else has gone to work.
It is absolutely true.
It is elitis is every aspect.
Be it the western elites(banking behemoths,royalists and political mules),
their corporations as blackrock(and its globalist outlet Vanguard)
and celebrities.
And even the wannabe elites who are not even western like this chinese chick – because she is at elitist Harvard and instantly became an elitist herself.
As soon as they get the chance they completely sell out and become part of the Borg.
They instantly adapt every single globalist opinion zealot style.
They turn into babbling Automatons who all of a sudden are 100% globalists,
100% one world government,
100% AGW ,
100% Green New Deal,
100% rainbow LGBT
100% diversity,equity,inclusion BS
100% pronoun and other language perversions( like LatinX)
100% open borders
100% Ukraine
and they’ll mock Christianity while calling everyone a Nazi who does the same with any other religion.
and they’ll pretend to be vegan
and everyone is a pathlogical do gooder.
And in any western country it’s the same fake values.
Fake as these values never existed before in history but every western country,MSM,Big Tech (except for X) follows them slavishly – which mean it is all intentional and coordinated((or as the Blackrock CEO uses to say ” We will force behavior” )
And this strategy ain’t new – it already existed for decades but was limited to wars
where a unified opinion was forced onto all of western MSM and politician to get a green light to bomb Iraq,Syria etc.
And those who stop following these “values” will be punished(and some even killed) be it science, politics,entertainment and especially those who dare to publish very accurate scientific results as happened to Roland Fryer whose career was ruined by a Harvard kangaroo court after he told the truth about shootings and police violence.
They are wrong.
Climate issues are not “values” of any kind…
They are LIES and a SCAM….. a total LACK of real western values.
Some one send this to Peta Credlin at Sky news Australia
Funny thing though Eric for a country that is sceptical of global warming they dominate the global renewable market at around 60% and all manafactured using coal as its power source. Another point is, if the Chinese didn’t make renewables using coal, their prices would far higher. We are in the midst of the irony age. The left, primarily white middle class loons, are the trojan horse for the planned destruction of western civilization by the globalist elites. Globlal Waming, Ukraine, Covid and mass unparalleled immigration, are their weapon of choice. Its an alliance of the western elite cabal, Islam and the primarily white middle class left, who act as their agent.
Very nicely said…we’re screwed.
If the Guizi want to buy worthless trinkets and toy energy solutions, why should the Chinese stand in the way of Westerners paying stupid tax?
I think it’s far more greedy and treacherous than that. What we know call the globalist aligned political class have been helping push green policies and diverting billions of tax payers money to the Chinese economy and I have no doubt whatsoever getting massive kick backs. Like globalist rishi sunak making £500m on his moderna shares. It’s a massive corrupt traitorous system and the globalist elite love it as it destroys the western economies
No one has made more money as a Sino-phile than Michael Bloomberg.
You are wrong with this one.
The Rockefellers have been pushing the industrialization of China since the 1970ies via the Bilderberg group they have been running and via the Lima Agreements.
They made way more money than Bloomberg who is just a high level pawn.
A pawn who was told to run for president as a distraction.And though he and everyone else knew that it would be a massive reputational damage and that a billionaire has 0 chance with woke democrats
he pretended to run for president so they can turn Biden who was loosing big against Sanders into the winning candidate.
And while everyone was focused on Bloomberg, Biden,for absolutely no reason,started winning and winning.
“…for a country that is sceptical of global warming they dominate the global renewable market at around 60%…”
I’m reminded of the various quotes attributed to various Communist leaders, about selling the capitalists the rope to hang themselves. The Chinese have found a great rope that the western economies are happily tightening around their necks.
Well written. Except that I don’t think that there is a planned destruction of western civilization by the globalist elite. This might be a motive for some, but for the majority IMHO it’s just greed. They realized that in the western civilization there are mostly saturated markets not allowing high growth rates and big profit. Therefore they are always looking for an opportunity of “the next big thing” and when it comes along everybody jumps on board and pushes the agenda with all their power in the media. Covid, Climate/CO2, now maybe AI (because Trump is pulling the plug on Climate taxpayer waste). Of course they will never admitting that it was overblown hysteria and will just try to cover up and move along.
I agree that it is a unholy cocktail of greed, globalist ideology, heavily brainwashed uni educated nut zeros and Islam.
You are wrong with one thing.
We Muslims are too incompetent and disorganized to pull this off.
Islam is just a tool to destroy the west.
If you want to know who is really behind this get it straight from the horses mouth.
Watch the Barbra Spectre Video.
Then you will also understand why the JFS is at the core of the mass invasion of the USA
– and then start to research what the Kalergi Plan is all about and that it is been executed right know ( of course all of this will go against the core believe of 90% of conservatives as result of decades of indoctrination that goes way deeper than any AGW brainwashingbut 1 out of 10 of you will be able to break the code)
Do Chinese internet users get thrown in jail for saying things Chinese leadership does not like, the way they do in the UK?
I assume this happens in China but we don’t see much information on this subject.
Chinese culture is interesting. They never openly disobey an order from the emperor, at least when anyone is watching, but they’ve had 3000 years practice at creative interpretation.
So when Xi ordered them to build more renewables, the order was obeyed, but they also built coal plants to firm the renewables.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/30/bbc-china-is-firming-wind-and-solar-power-with-coal-plants/
Similarly when Xi imposed a coal quota to reduce emissions, the rule was strictly obeyed – but everyone burned coal at the normal rate, using the entire quota by halfway through the year, then shut down the economy and waited for new orders. The order not to exceed a strict quota was scrupulously obeyed – but nobody had thought to order anyone to reduce their coal use.
After a week of shutdown someone in the central committee found the guts to tell Xi the entire economy had shut down, and the quota was rescinded.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/09/28/china-suffers-widespread-blackouts-as-climate-targets-bite/
It happens at least 30 times a day in England. Someone gets the knock…
British police arresting a man for calling someone a “muppet” – Nordic Times
And this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEHJjnPlpg
When they say freedom of speech you know they’re lying.
Welcome to communism 🙁
From what I hear you are not much better off, Eric! As Billboard Chris will affirm
https://adfinternational.org/news/billboard-chris-fined-for-street-conversation
Yep but at least it’s warm in Queensland, so we can live all year round without home heating if we have to.
That’s what I like to see, sod you Jack.…
I cut down the Ash tree in my garden in the spring. I calculate it will last quite a few years. In my own way, I too am saying: sod you Jack.… or Miliband…
My friends wife is Chinese and he is often out there and loves it. He thinks the Chinese city ev boom is wonderful as it cleans the air even though there’s coal burning generators everywhere. At the moment China is still doing well but if the economy tanked then suppression just like the UK
So what did she say? This blog states that she spoke of “diversity, humanity and globalism” but makes no mention of so-called climate change.
Climate change catastrophism is the main product of Globalism.
… there is a widespread suspicion and resistance toward what are perceived as “elite discourses” …
You mean like people who go to university and then live off our taxes doing computer modelling to save us all from things that go bump in the night?
(76) ‘COVID vaccine has worst side effects ever’: Dr Rogers makes jaw-dropping claim at Senate hearing – YouTube
Why on earth should we be suspicious about that?
LOL, no! You do not understand what is going on.
The whole thing is about bringing down the west and elevating China. The idea seems to resonate well within the left, as they hate the west anyhow, and of course China is a “socialist” country. The problem is just, the left is so irrational and nihilistic, their motives are hard to comprehend.
Things become way clearer if you just look at the CCP and their “scientific” publications, typically in Nature. Liu et al 2015 is a wonderful example. Officially it is independent, high level international science, but actually it is just a mouthpiece of the CCP.
The paper claims 49.9 was 40% less than 71.3, with 24 authors and the peer review of Nature approving that mathematical idiocy..
Then it derives two jaw dropping conclusions from it:
A systematic reduction of fossil fuel and cement emissions of 0.35 GtC translates into a 15% smaller land sink when this term is calculated as a residual between anthropogenic carbon emissions, atmosphere carbon growth and the ocean carbon sink, and is two times the estimated carbon sink in China’s forests (0.18 GtC y21). Thus it implies a considerable revision of the global carbon budget
Depending upon how the remaining quota of cumulative future carbon emissions is shared among nations, a correction of China’s current annual emissions by 10% suggests a 25% (inertia basis) or 70% (blended basis) difference in the cumulative future emissions that can be emitted by China under a 2°C warming target
Because China has “wonder coal”, holding 40% less carbon than previously thought, CO2 sinks are weaker than previously thought, so the whole world must emit less CO2. The whole world? Well, except for China, since it has emitted less than thought, so it should be emitting more in the future. You just can’t make this up!
Or maybe just elevating China. “Bringing down”, “bringing to heel”, “regime change”, and so on, seems more a Western modus operandi.
India has roughly the same population as China, but the “Be Indian, buy Indian” campaign is not seen as trying to bring down the West as far as I know. I’m just surprised at the vitriol directed against, say, the Chinese by the Western countries, particularly the US. I suppose this could be due to envy, or the realisation that the US is no longer a world leader in many instances.
Even the popular meme of MAGA (Make America Great Again) acknowledges that America is no longer “Great”, but desires to be so.
Unlike China, which seems to be doing fairly well at being “great”, in a commercial, material and military sense. “Bringing down” the “West” would merely lose it some customers. What would be the point? Maybe the “West” could concentrate more on elevating itself, and less on “bringing down” others.
Who knows?
I read the original article. I noticed something about the reasons given for why the Chinese people should see Climate Change as something to be concerned about today: nothing was a threat today or in the near future.
The writer has the “future existential threat” buried deeply in his brain. This “truth” drives all his responses. He cannot understand any pushback or indifference because he has an existential threat in his worldview. But that is a terminal weakness when it comes to understanding or appreciating other views.
This is a fundamental problem for any of us skeptics. We cannot argue about a perceived threat in the indefinite future in indefinite places with someone whose worldview has absolute certainty without solid, current evidence.
China gives lip service to CC because China is the primary positive recipient of the economic consequences.
Eggs in one basket. Sounds like what is being pushed with Net Zero.
Vladimir Putin made a statement (in September 2003, during his address to the International Arctic Forum in Moscow). English translation: “A couple of degrees [of global warming] wouldn’t hurt. We could spend less on fur coats, and the grain harvest would go up.”
Russia now officially recognizes AGW in its policies (e.g., 2020 Climate Doctrine), but emphasizes potential benefits like Arctic shipping routes, frames aggressive decarbonization as a threat to its economy, and emphasizes adaptation.
To me, the 2020 Climate Doctrine seems full of policy speak that satisfies climate idiots without taking much actual action. I like it.
Maybe Jiang Yurong could make things a little tricky for China, which is why they rip into her? China has been doing very well for themselves by feeding both sides* of the western insanity, but they have kept to a different message at home. The last thing China wants is for their own people to catch the western insanity from someone like Jiang Yurong.
*Both sides – the inside with green funding and the outside with wind turbines.
Since China’s CO2 emissions have increased fivefold since 1990, and in 2024 comprised nearly 31% of the global total, it’s obvious that despite the country’s increase in wind and solar investment fossil fuels, particularly coal, still reign supreme. So any supposed commitment it claims it’s making toward fighting climate change is just i a vague promise it has no intention of keeping, nor will it be pressured into doing anything about the issue if such efforts adversely affect the economy.
If Americans only knew outside perspectives, beyond the carefully crafted headlines of media groups.
Many Americans would be surprised at how the US is viewed in private. The US Government boasts about its ability to summarily assassinate anybody it likes, anywhere in the world, and gleefully celebrating the fact.
This occasionally results in less than flattering views of American declarations of law, justice, human rights, democracy, when compared with observed facts.
Why would anybody be surprised?
I remember well the 2009 COP15 fiasco in Copenhagen, where Obama foolishly tried to impose a fait acompli on the Chinese by writing a deal behind their backs and trying to force them to sign it.
The Chinese delegation withdrew from to their hotel and said , let us know when you have a better idea. This created total panic from the western nations , desperate to impose their scientific fraud on the whole planet.
From that point on China had them eating out of their hand , leading to the ridiculous deal where western nations agreed to cripple their own economies and China was allowed to “pollute” as much as it wanted, allowing them to take over the world economy.
It was the first time China really asserted itself and it changed the world.