Chinese Political Discourses On Environmental Issues In Xi’s Era

This study seeks to understand how political discourse on environmental issues during Xi Jinping’s era has changed in China.Previous studies have shown that the witnessing course on environmental governance in recent years resulted from public demands for better environmental conditions since environmental issues have become a serious threat to public health in numerous regions across China;whereas China’s current economic performance allowed the government to finance the green transition.Applying critical discourse analysis(CDA),the study focused on identifying and describing discursive strategies of the environmental narrative based on the collected data of Xi’s speeches.In order to conduct this study,numerous excerpts of Xi’s comments were carefully selected from a wide array of remarks and comments from his speeches at the domestic and international events concerning environmental protection from 2013 to 2020.As a result,this study paper was able to systematically outline the underlying discursive strategies revealing the emergence of new narratives in Chinese environmental politics under Xi’s leadership.Xi Jinping’s era has been focusing on convincing the public that the experience of China’s previous rapid development that had drastic effects on the environment and people’s well-being was a lesson to learn and never repeat again,gradually shifting China’s image in the global climate change regime to a more responsible political actor.