Climate lefties, I love you but the CCP is shite

Why do some of the people who shout most voraciously about the state of the planet go all dewey-eyed when it comes to talking about the Chinese government?

True, the discourse within the popular climate movement (XR, Fridays for Future, Sunrise Movement) as a whole is mildly disdainful of China’s environmentally destructive activities around the globe - when China is even mentioned at all. When it is, it's in derision of "What About China?" being used as a tu quoque of the climate-apathetic.

But lately, there have been elements of CCP apologism creeping into the messaging from western activists whose climate actions I usually respect. These are the Greta-led youth who are comfortable crashing climate conferences attended by government delegates and corporate power, taking to the streets in solidarity with oppressed people around the world whose lands are being exploited, rallying others to join them in disrupting fossil fuel activities in their own localities.

Many of these people are lefties (obviously). Some even self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist, or at least socialist. This is standard stuff, in a movement that has at its core the dismantling or transformation of the capitalist industrial complex, the redistribution of assets and natural resources and the empowerment of the subjugated. And eating the rich, even if you're vegan.

I’ve attended many rallies and protests for a variety of causes and gotten used to students handing me the Morning Star, or socialist orgs recruiting new comrades. Often those associated with these groups are the hardest-core eco-warriors, not only in the streets but at home between the tweets. Some call them hippies, I call them a democratic necessity.

But as shown by their apologism in other situations (praise for China's response to COVID-19, and silence regarding the violent removal of freedoms in Hong Kong), some western lefties are now idealizing the Chinese Communist Party as an alternative to the neoliberal oppression machine of the US and Europe. Understandably disillusioned, under attack from crippling debt, inequality and lack of social safety nets, many young lefties are looking for #inspo elsewhere.

It’s indicative of its subversive nature how the CCP propaganda machine has drawn such woolly-headed sheep into its Wolf Warrior embrace. The internet has rightly made a wider variety of media and voices accessible to (virtually) everyone - and a result, the option of “who” to agree with.

In the climate sphere, this has wonderfully uplifted the voices of people who have never been listened to in mainstream western media before. It has pushed the issue of climate breakdown further up the agenda. It has brought into the light the global injustice and annihilation plaguing the 21st century.

But Chinese state media manipulates this and conveniently whitewashes or fully censors information on the environmentally destructive activities of Chinese state-owned enterprises domestically and abroad, in favour of constantly laying into the US. To the untrained eye consuming "alternative" news such as CGTN and Global Times, it would appear that China is not only a socialist utopia, it has succeeded without harming the planet.

True, per capita carbon emissions in China remain a fraction of the US's. This is largely due to the fact that the Chinese population is more than four times the size. This 1.4 billion population means that per capita carbon emissions do not take into account the gaping inequality that characterizes the ironically-named “People’s Republic”.

Some climate activists will cherry-pick per capita carbon emissions as “proof” that China’s system “works better”. They will clutch at "Communism has worked in China" straws, and suggest the so-called socialist Chinese system as the answer to our own polluting problems.

They will point to China’s massive investment into and expansion of the renewable energy sector, as heavily praised by CCP mouthpieces such as the People’s Daily and Global Times (notwithstanding the very capitalist nature of such market-driven expansion). Not only are these sectors often credit bubbles, a lot of the energy produced is usually wasted (given difficulties with grid networks and underdevelopment of energy storage). China also continues its expansion of coal and gas, without any intention of curbing consumption.

Intersectional climate justice should be at the core of the predominantly white-middle class climate movement. The approval drizzled on the CCP by some left-wing climate activists is blind to the genocide and forced imprisonment of Uighur Muslims in East Turkestan, an area west of China that, claimed as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, has become an environmental wasteland of toxic mines and choking power stations.

This, and a number (link, link link) of climate injustices committed on Chinese soil against oppressed minorities in the name of CCP-dubbed “progress” are conveniently ignored by Western climate lefties. China can do whatever it sees as best for its people, they say, since they never had the chance to develop while the West did. We ruined the planet with our Industrial Revolutions. Such a stance could be taken directly out of the Xinhua playbook.

While the European west is slowly beginning to bend the emissions curve, or at least trying to, the Chinese government has no such intentions. Xi Jinping, with his lip service to "green growth", may not perform as a climate-change-denying Bolsonaro- or Trump-esque clown, but his administration deserves an equal measure of criticism for its impact on Earth's life support systems.

The consequence of CCP-apologist rhetoric is that global climate action is hindered, not advanced. When you unquestioningly buy into CCP talking points, you are vetoing whatever they veto during climate negotiations. You are sending your approval for resource exploitation and disruption of indigenous communities in South America, Africa, and Asia.

If you are really so enthusiastic about speaking truth to power, on leaving it in the ground, on indigenous leadership and land stewardship, on “this is what democracy looks like”, on the fight for ecological diversity and future generations – don’t look to the Chinese system for answers.

Don’t look to our system either. We’re not here to provide the answers, yet. We are here to cause a scene when shit is looking wrong. Until it gets better.