China's Eco-Civilisation, Climate Leviathan, and Hobbesian Energy Transition

Abstract

Scholars have hitherto tended to theorise China's ecological civilisation project either as a form of environmental authoritarianism or as a vision of eco-socialism. This paper contributes to the conversation by conducting a textual analysis of Chinese scholarly discussions on eco-civilisation. The analysis uncovers topics and themes related to both narratives of environmental authoritarianism and eco-socialist envisioning. It also captures the shift in discussion from an ideological critique of industrial civilisation to a techno-bureaucratic agenda concerning sustainable development and governance strategies, along with the growing roles of the party-state, state-corporate cooperation, and geopolitical ambition. To interpret the findings, I revisit the neo-Weberian institutionalist notion of embedded autonomy and revise it through critical realist Marxism, not only to explain the growing bureaucratisation of eco-civilisation but also to untangle its Hobbesian institutional features that distinguish China's eco-civilisation project (or the making of a Climate Leviathan) from the Western liberal mode of environmental governance.