This article examines the persistence of afforestation and greening narratives through a case study of an experimental tree-planting project in Nagchu City, a high-altitude, historically treeless area in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The project – implemented by private enterprise Elion, under China’s Ministry of Science and Technology – aimed to establish trees in Nagchu. After reviewing the history of afforestation, this article analyses the origins, implementation, and outcomes of the Elion project, including resident perspectives. The analysis reveals that the project was driven primarily by state power embedded in top–down environmental governance – rather than ecological principles. This power manifested through the official narrative of ecological civilization building, Xi Jinping’s pishi (批示, written instructions), and what counts as ‘science’. Most interviewed residents viewed urban tree planting as beneficial, though a few expressed scepticism and concern. Their positive perceptions were shaped by multiple factors: environmental subjectivity, the official narrative of ecological civilization building, expressed belief in scientific and technological progress, and global afforestation narratives. Together, state power and these perceptions sustain afforestation and greening narratives in Nagchu.

This study centres on the role of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) in shaping labour politics in China’s platform economy. More specifically, a Gramscian framework is developed to understand trade union building not simply as an ideological project, but as a set of materially embedded practices marked by tension, negotiation, and a shared yet unstable ‘language of contention’. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Zhengzhou and Xiamen, the article explores how a language of care arises and is practised differently across local contexts, shaped by distinct political-economic conditions. In doing so, it argues that union building in the platform economy should be understood not as a unified top–down initiative, but as a contested terrain where institutional strategies and grassroots agency are embedded in local distinct political economies. Among the first to explore the role of the ACFTU in China’s platform economy, this study encourages future studies on struggles and ruptures in the field of labour and trade union studies in China.

As China’s average income and concerns about sustainability increase, will it adopt Western practices promoting sustainability in global value chains? I address this question by examining the trends of affirmation of palm oil sustainability governance in the country. By combining literature on transnational voluntary sustainability standards (TVSS) with analytical tools from Global China scholarship, I investigate the attempted diffusion in China of TVSS sponsored by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (hereafter RSPO) and the reactions of key actor groups to this process. Research findings reveal a diversity of responses from various actors, underpinned by a trend of rejection of TVSS and an overall stance of non-intervention in palm oil sustainability. The existence of producer countries’ national and state-led standards concerning sustainable palm oil, notably those of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil, has directly contributed to shaping this stance by weakening the RSPO’s claim to be a ‘global’ standard and lowering the perceived need for buyer-driven initiatives.

This study examines how China’s Virtual Wailing Wall evolved from a site of public expression into a form of alternative political participation, shaping broader societal dynamics after the zero-COVID policy. Using a mixed-methods approach combining computational and discourse analysis, we look at user-generated comments on Dr Li Wenliang’s Weibo threads between 25 October 2022 and 30 September 2023. Our dataset includes 137,094 comments during the COVID-19 policy period and 76,343 after the zero-COVID policy. Semantic network analysis, the quadratic assignment procedure, and topic modelling reveal notable shifts in linguistic patterns and expressions, while discourse analysis highlights transformations in statement structures, contextual framing, and rhetorical strategies. Findings suggest that the Wailing Wall has been redefined as a space for creative resistance, where users at the grassroots level continue to engage in implicit yet persistent opposition despite strict online censorship. More importantly, individuals have developed a subtle yet politicized form of everyday resistance as alternative participation, embedding their dissent within personal narratives to navigate digital restrictions in China’s online space.