Intersecting nexus of politics and science: Heterogeneous typologies of climate change skepticism discourse in China

Abstract

As a pervasive social phenomenon, climate change skepticism has been extensively studied in Western contexts, where it is deeply intertwined with local sociopolitical structures. In China, despite the government’s firm commitment to mitigation, a growing trend of public skepticism has emerged online. Using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 2426 climate skeptical posts on Zhihu, China’s largest knowledge-sharing platform, this study examined how Chinese skeptics construct their discourse. Our findings revealed that Chinese climate skeptics do not merely reject scientific evidence; instead, they frame their arguments through a synthesis of national identity, geopolitical conflicts, and cultural-historical narratives, invoking climate justice claims at both domestic and international levels. Building on these insights, our research proposed a “scientific–political framework” that distinguishes four subtypes of Chinese climate skepticism: “Geopolitical Construct,” “Western Conspiracy,” “Natural Variability,” and “Indifferent Fatalism.” By shedding light on the context-specific configurations of skepticism discourse, this study contributes to a deeper theoretical understanding of climate skepticism in non-Western contexts, while also prompting critical reflection on China’s long-standing over-politicized model of climate change communication.