Legitimacy in multipolarity: Sustainability norms in China-Brazil value chains

This paper examines how sustainability norms emerge and evolve within China–Brazil value chains, focusing on the soybean and pulp sectors. Moving beyond Global North–centric analyses of norm diffusion, it investigates South–South dynamics where China and Brazil collaboratively construct environmental governance standards. Drawing on Global Value Chain theory, norm diffusion scholarship, South–South Cooperation literature, and IR debates on multipolarity, the study argues that sustainability norms in these sectors follow pathways of hybridization and replication rather than hierarchical transfer. Methodologically, it applies comparative case studies supported by process tracing to analyze how standards are embedded through market, certification, and state–corporate interactions. The results show that soy governance reflects negotiated hybridization shaped by transnational lobbying, bilateral agreements, and China’s growing “green demand,” whereas the pulp sector operates through highly concentrated, certification-driven replication aligned with international buyers’ requirements. These findings contribute to theoretical debates on the agency of emerging powers and illustrate how sustainability governance becomes a strategic arena where legitimacy is constructed in a multipolar global order. Ultimately, the paper shows that China–Brazil sustainability interactions reshape environmental norms while remaining conditioned by structural features of global capitalism.