This study aimed to design a strategic energy management model based on the Chinese approach. The research was conducted within an interpretivist philosophical framework and adopted an inductive reasoning approach. It is an applied-developmental study in terms of its purpose and is classified as a non-experimental (descriptive) study in terms of data collection methods. A qualitative research design was employed to achieve the research objective. The participant population included university professors and managers from the Electricity and Energy Deputy of the Ministry of Energy. Purposeful sampling was used, and theoretical saturation was reached with 10 participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a decision matrix-based questionnaire. The validity of the qualitative coding was confirmed using Holsti's method (0.756) and Cohen’s kappa coefficient (0.681). The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, and its reliability was supported through an estimated intra-class correlation coefficient (0.815). The interviews were analyzed and coded using thematic analysis in MaxQDA 20 software. In the second phase, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MicMac software were used to determine the relationships among the constructs and to design the model. The findings indicated that China’s authoritarian political system and spatial planning framework influence the country’s cultural soft power projection. This cultural projection affects international communication, diplomacy, and the harmonization of domestic and global systems, ultimately leading to strategic energy management. In turn, strategic energy management contributes to environmental preservation and China’s accelerating economic growth.