Description
Since the US withdrew from the Paris Agreement and over 60 international organizations and governing bodies, the world has reached a critical juncture marked by polycrisis, including but not limited to ongoing climate change, environmental degradation, injustice, and multidimensional contestations across the globe. Meanwhile, China’s global environmental governance has gained traction amid the US’s abdication. China has mainstreamed its Chinese-style ‘Nature-based solutions’ (NbSs) globally since 2019. By contrast, international experts remain skeptical of China’s NBSs. The skepticism stems from the Chinese state's immense power to steer a renewable revolution that challenges the European/Western convention in unprecedented magnitude. This necessitates a proper reflection of China’s NbSs and the global politics looming around it. This article aims to reflect on China’s NbSs in light of this critique. For this reflection, the article introduces an eco-security-Daoist perspective, drawing on ecological security discourse and philosophical Daoism. The article argues that China’s NbSs must realize (1) climate action and strategies that transcend the binary of mitigation and adaptation, (2) bottom-up resistance against ‘greenwashing’, ‘virtue-signaling’, and ‘weaponization of climate change politics’, and (3) democratize state-directed governance.