The images not only show the extent of the destruction. They also show how the catastrophe in China is told: as a tragedy, but at the same time as evidence of the state's ability to act. The focus is on the determined efforts of the rescue workers, who are portrayed as fearless and self-sacrificing. Pathetic music lies above the images. Numerous police officers, customs officers and border guards were on duty at the border crossing. “We must pay tribute to our heroes,” one of the videos says.
Nepal is dealing with the disaster differently: the new reality of climate change is being discussed here; The Foreign Minister is demanding compensation from the main perpetrators such as the USA, China and India. However, China's reporting does not mean that climate change and its consequences are not an issue there.
The cotton harvest is in danger in Xinjiang
The country is quite used to extreme weather. Because of its size, diverse climates and extreme topography, from highest mountains to deep canyons, the country has historically struggled with floods, droughts and storms. Natural disasters play a large role in Chinese history. Issues such as food security are marked by memories of hunger and suffering.
What is new, however, is the frequency and severity of these events. 2025 was the warmest year since records began in 1961. This year, 15 weather stations in northern China reported historic amounts of rain. Heat waves and floods have been threatening the corn and soybean harvests since mid-July, and the cotton harvest in Xinjiang is in danger due to heat and low rainfall.
So-called attribution research examines whether an extreme weather event has become more likely or more severe due to climate change. According to Jelena Große-Bley, alumna of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, this is also a lively research field in China. Große-Bley researches climate adaptation in China and defended her dissertation on the topic in July. “Since around 2006, climate change has also become more prominent in China’s national politics,” she says. There are regularly published climate action reports, adaptation plans and scientific committees whose work is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and whose members often participate at the international level themselves. The Chinese government does not question the fact that climate change exists.
The country wants to move away from fossil fuels - but only be “climate neutral” by 2060
Beijing is still criticized internationally. China wants to reach its emissions peak by 2030, reduce them by seven to ten percent by 2035 and become climate neutral in 2060. For many observers, this is not ambitious enough. In addition, China's expansion of green technologies is often explained primarily by the pursuit of energy security.
China expert Kyle Chan from the US think tank Brookings believes this explanation falls short. “If China were only interested in its own energy security and not in climate change per se, it would not make such enormous efforts to move away from coal, of which it has plenty,” he writes. Efforts to reduce emissions in industries such as steel, aluminum and cement would also suggest that climate protection in China is not just understood as an energy issue.
The People's Republic is the world's largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases and at the same time a leader in the expansion of green technologies. Millions of electric cars drive on Chinese roads, and solar and wind power are being expanded rapidly.
A study published in 2025 evaluated 5.3 million posts on the Chinese social network Weibo that were posted there between 2012 and 2022. It shows that the population's attention to climate change has increased significantly. Since March 2018, digital attention, measured in terms of post numbers and interactions, has almost doubled. Interest rose particularly sharply around specific events such as international climate conferences and extreme weather. According to the authors, China's approach to climate change is largely viewed positively in the debates examined. The dispute did not follow a pronounced political divide between climate skeptics and supporters of climate protection. The scientific consensus is widespread, climate skepticism only plays a minor role.
Personal concern creates more urgency than the abstract concept of climate change
Whether people use the term “climate change” to describe changes that they themselves perceive is another question. “The term itself is not necessarily used in rural China,” says Große-Bley. However, if you describe climate change as a long-term change in climate and weather, everyone would immediately know what it is about, she says. "People already live with it every day" and would describe specific experiences, for example: "In my hometown there was frost that had never happened there before. All the orange trees died."
For many people in rural areas, climate change is less an “abstract global question,” as the expert explains, than a series of changes that they see and feel every day: no rain, too much rain, frost and extreme heat. For agriculture, an unusual frost can be catastrophic if it occurs precisely during a sensitive phase of the crop rotation. In the city, however, people may just shrug their shoulders at such a weather event.
According to Große-Bley, the concrete experiences in rural areas are more likely to be discussed under terms such as sustainable agriculture, disaster protection and food security. Politics is then about suitable cultivation areas, new seed varieties and protection from extreme weather. "Why do you have to deal with disasters? Because disasters threaten food security. Because it's about protecting lives and property." In practice, this often creates more urgency than the abstract term climate change.
The Chinese believe that the state is responsible for the problems
China is also in a special situation in that climate targets have triggered enormous demand for the modernization of traditional industries and green consumption. Green technologies have become key growth drivers, particularly the so-called “new three” – electric cars, batteries and renewable energies such as wind and solar. In many cities the air has become cleaner, the streets are quieter, and electricity is cheap. The Chinese leadership also explicitly justifies the expansion of these technologies with climate protection and the reduction of emissions.
The social debate on climate adaptation, however, does not take place in a protest movement or in direct confrontation with the state. “It is more likely to be understood as many open problems,” says Große-Bley. "I don't have the impression that the term climate change is particularly politically sensitive at the moment. It becomes more sensitive when you ask why certain groups are more vulnerable than others."
Agriculture in particular shows how difficult adaptation is in practice. “The farmers can no longer easily rely on their previous traditional knowledge,” says Große-Bley. They noticed that their environment was changing. "But really knowing in which direction this is developing and what the right measures could be is of course a huge question. Both for the farmers themselves and for experts."
