China Daily, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, recently wrote, “China has all along been a staunch builder of world peace, contributor to global development, defender of the international order, and provider of public goods.”
Just a few weeks earlier, Global Times, another CCP outlet, ran an article titled China’s Contributions to World Peace, Development Bolster Its International Image, which said, “In an increasingly polarized and fragmented international landscape, China’s sense of responsibility and conduct as a major power have helped… prompting a global reassessment of what it means to be a major power.”
These articles are consistent with China’s attempts over the past five years to present itself as a “responsible power” promoting a multipolar world free from U.S.
Building on this narrative, the portrayal of China as a “responsible power” is central to its 2025 National Security White Paper, titled China’s National Security in the New Era, which outlines how the Chinese Communist Party seeks to position itself as a stabilizing force in global affairs.
Beijing cites its criticism of U.S. military actions, its signing of the 2024 International Health Regulations (IHR) Amendments, its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its promotion of green energy as evidence of its claimed global leadership.
But China’s actions undermine this narrative. While accusing the United States of warmongering and interfering in other nations’ affairs, particularly over Taiwan, Beijing continues to finance both Russia and the Myanmar junta, fueling the two largest wars on the planet.
It condemns U.S. missile strikes on Iran and the Iran-backed Houthis, yet has negotiated separate deals with the Houthis to spare Chinese ships from attacks in the Red Sea.
Though China claims that its support for global health is altruistic, it stands to benefit from the IHR Amendments, which expand WHO authority and normalize Beijing’s centralized lockdown model.
During the pandemic, China profited heavily from vaccine sales, often presenting them as “aid” when they were, in fact, commercial transactions.
With the U.S. opting out of the amendments, China positions itself as cooperative and benevolent by contrast.
Environmental policy is another area where China attempts to portray itself as a responsible global actor while engaging in contradictory and damaging behavior.
Although Beijing has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and now holds 39% of global wind energy capacity, 36% of solar, and ten of the world’s sixteen million new energy vehicles, these achievements are tied to commercial interests.
China profits heavily from exporting green technologies, while the production of batteries, turbines, and solar panels relies on rare earth mining, one of the most environmentally destructive industries.
Much of this pollution has been outsourced to less developed countries like Burma, where Chinese-backed mining operations fuel contamination and deforestation.
Despite accounting for 32% of global CO₂ emissions and seeing emissions increase from 2020 to 2023, China promotes itself as a leader in climate diplomacy.
It created the $3.1 billion South-South Cooperation Fund and claimed 2023 as the “greenest” year in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with 56% of energy investments going to renewables.
Yet, the BRI’s green push often means either exporting Chinese-made clean technology, for a profit, or relocating environmental costs to partner countries that mine raw materials and bear the pollution.
In a 2020 diplomatic exchange, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released two reports condemning the United States’ environmental record under President Trump, criticizing U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and failures to meet climate funding commitments.
These attacks came shortly after Washington had published its own fact sheet on China’s environmental abuses.
China’s self-promotion as a global climate leader contrasts sharply with its ongoing environmental damage, both at home and abroad. In fact, last year marked the first time China’s CO₂ emissions declined.
The reduction was a modest 1% below its peak, implying that any short-term increase could push emissions to a new record. Furthermore, China’s emissions have fluctuated by much larger margins in previous years due to economic cycles.
China’s use of global crises to bolster its image, through vaccine diplomacy, green energy exports, climate criticism of the U.S., and selective treaty participation, aligns with Beijing’s 2025 National Security White Paper, released in May.
The document outlines how China frames itself as a stabilizing force while portraying the U.S. as a reckless hegemon, even as it evades sanctions by supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine, purchasing Iranian oil, and backing Tehran militarily.
The white paper presents China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) as a counter to Western-led security frameworks, emphasizing sovereignty, non-interference, and a reformed international order centered on the interests of developing nations.
It criticizes “certain countries” for interfering in China’s internal affairs, specifically citing Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, while asserting the right to take “all necessary measures” to defend its territorial claims.
These issues are framed as strictly domestic, with any foreign scrutiny dismissed as illegitimate interference.
At the same time, China is involved in at least 15 territorial disputes across Asia. Over the past five years, it has engaged in two minor military skirmishes with India in the Himalayas, while the People’s Liberation Army regularly violates the sovereign sea and airspace of Japan and Southeast Asian nations.
China’s navy and coast guard frequently harass and at times launch non-lethal attacks against Philippine and Vietnamese vessels.
Beijing also advocates for greater representation of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in global governance, portraying itself as a voice for the Global South, while simultaneously rejecting universal human rights norms, shielding authoritarian partners from criticism, engaging in predatory lending and lopsided resource extraction deals in developing countries, and at times violating the territorial sovereignty and environmental health of the very countries whose interests it claims to represent.
The white paper advances Xi Jinping’s “holistic security” doctrine, which links domestic authoritarian control to international stability.
Every crisis, from climate chang to global health to war, is used to argue that only the Chinese Communist Party’s “absolute leadership” can manage global complexity. The underlying message is that peace-seeking nations should reject U.S. influence and align with China.
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