Seizing a venue linking opportunity: China’s strategy to advance its sea cucumber interests in global environmental governance

Abstract

This study explores how China strategically advances its position and interacts with institutional contexts to shape environmental negotiations. By employing process-tracing methods and conducting expert interviews on the case of sea cucumber negotiations, we find that China intends to garner international support in a policy venue (CITES) while actively engaging in another policy venue that better aligns with China's interests (FAO). Building upon existing studies on institutional change and negotiation strategy, we highlight two aspects of a venue-linking framework, including the institutional settings enabling countries to deploy such a strategy in environmental negotiations and the actors’ capacity to seize the opportunity. In doing so, we show how China has strategically engaged in multiple policy venues to advance its preferences through a particular, more amenable venue. Our findings offer new empirical insights into how China navigates the complex political dynamics in global environmental governance when multiple policy venues with overlapping jurisdictions are involved.