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.