A Chinese professor writes in a Chinese international news outlet that Western countries must dismantle their industries—that this industrial suicide is the only viable solution to climate change and, naturally, the morally correct thing to do. One is immediately tempted to ask the obvious question: does he actually believe what he is writing?
Does he believe this earnest little propaganda exercise will somehow reverse the growing wave of climate realism sweeping through Western societies—not just the United States, but Europe as well? Because either he truly believes his own words, or he believes that his words will matter. That they will land. That they will persuade.
And that assumption is the tell.
Because he knows perfectly well where the real audience sits. It isn’t in the West. Who, exactly, reads China Daily on a daily basis? Not the Western masses. Not even the mildly curious. Not even those who like to perform intellectual seriousness by pretending they read something more elevated than the local tabloid. Its reach outside China is ceremonial at best.
So who is he talking to?
If I had to wager, I’d say his paymasters in Beijing. He knows precisely what tune he is expected to play. Saying the right thing—no matter how absurd, ineffectual, or transparently self-serving—has value. It can advance a career. It can protect one when the next purge, reshuffle, or quiet disappearance makes its inevitable rounds.
This piece was never meant for Western consumption. It is destined for internal use. Not for the Chinese masses, mind you, but for the leadership. A neat little citation they can point to, demonstrating that China is bravely lecturing the decadent West, showing it the moral path forward. Proof that the Middle Kingdom remains what it has always claimed to be: the center of the world. Chosen. Elevated. Sanctioned by the spirits of the universe itself.
And while you marvel at the Chinese miracle, you are politely asked to ignore the accumulating structural failures, demographic implosions, energy constraints, and financial rot spreading beneath the surface. Nothing to see here. Move along.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/26/WS69769cb4a310d6866eb359f5.html