<p>Rising climate risks are driving rapid deployment of renewable energy worldwide, creating opportunities to assess its geopolitical and social impacts. While research on China’s overseas renewable projects has largely emphasized economic aspects such as technology transfer and infrastructure provision, limited attention has examined their influence on China’s international image and soft power. This study provides the first causal evidence on how China’s overseas wind power investments shape host-country attitudes. We integrate geolocated data on Chinese wind projects with media sentiment from the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) and employ a Difference-in-Differences design to isolate impacts. Results demonstrate that these projects significantly improve perceptions of China, particularly in OECD and non-Five Eyes countries and for larger facilities, though the effect attenuates with distance between projects and media sources. Mechanism analysis using plant-level data, satellite imagery, and surveys identifies four channels: technological diffusion, environmental gains, local economic growth, and employment creation. Overall, the findings show that renewable energy investment abroad not only contributes to global sustainability but also enhances the sponsoring country’s reputation. The study advances debates on energy diplomacy and offers policy insights for leveraging clean energy projects as instruments of soft power and international cooperation.</p>