By the end of 2022, China had taken substantial visible actions on climate—especially in renewables—but these did not translate into it being widely perceived as the leading country in climate-change mitigation rather than as a main climate “foe.”

On the action side, China accelerated clean-energy deployment. In 2022 it installed record amounts of solar and wind capacity and, by global comparison, accounted for a very large share of new renewable power additions, helping make it the world’s top producer of electricity from renewables.(en.wikipedia.org) Many analyses highlighted that China was becoming the dominant market and manufacturer for solar, wind, and other green technologies.(dw.com) These are exactly the kind of “visible actions” the prediction referred to.

However, simultaneous coal expansion and high emissions dominated perceptions:

• In 2022 China approved roughly 90–106 GW of new coal power—about two large coal plants per week—quadrupling approvals versus 2021 and accounting for the vast majority of new coal projects globally.(energyandcleanair.org) This was widely reported as a renewed coal boom, not a phase‑out.
• Analyses of 2022 data framed this surge as a major threat to global climate goals and as undermining China’s claim to climate leadership, explicitly saying it “directly threatens the 1.5°C temperature goal” and “undermines its global leadership on renewables deployment” and the credibility of its climate commitments.(e3g.org)
• At the same time, China remained clearly identified in international coverage as the world’s largest current greenhouse‑gas emitter, responsible for roughly a third of global CO₂ emissions, reinforcing its image as the central climate problem.(en.wikipedia.org)

Reflecting this, major outlets in 2023 (looking back at 2022 performance) framed China in ambivalent terms—asking whether it is a “climate hero or a fossil fuel baddie,” while stressing that it leads the world in renewables but is still heavily dependent on coal and is the biggest emitter.(dw.com) Similarly, COP27 reporting emphasized China’s status as the largest emitter, its cautious stance on issues like loss-and-damage finance, and the perception among other countries that it could and should do more.(carbonbrief.org)

Taken together, the predominant international narrative by the end of 2022 was that China was a paradox—simultaneously a leader in clean‑energy deployment and a major climate spoiler—rather than being broadly reclassified from “foe” to clear, uncontested leader in climate mitigation. That falls short of the prediction’s bar that China would be “widely perceived internationally” primarily as a climate‑mitigation leader by the end of 2022. Therefore, the prediction is wrong.