Navigating EU-China Climate Governance: Role Relations as the Bridge of Role Conceptions and Performance

This paper analyses the EU-China relations in the post-Paris eras, focusing on their role conceptions and relations. As key players in global climate governance, the EU and China embody distinct roles. While existing literature addresses their individual roles, policy actions, and negotiations, their mutual role perceptions remain underexplored. Through a deductive analysis of primary sources based on a four-quadrant analytical framework, findings suggest that while both actors conceive their shared role as strategic partners in climate governance, divergences arise over China’s selective role and the EU’s normative approach and responsibility-sharing. Combined with an inductive examination of their practical engagement, the research identifies three distinct types of role relations: aligned, adaptive, and misaligned. These role relations serve as a conceptual bridge between role conception and performance, manifested in performances as cooperation, adaptation, or contestation. In this sense, a path has been formed from role conception to role performance. The conclusions formulate prospects and recommendations for future interaction. The study contributes to the theoretical refinement of role theory in international relations and offers insights into the evolving EU-China dynamic in climate governance.