The article examines whether and how NGOs are engaged in the public and policy discussions on vulnerabilities as a part of overall responses to climate change and adaptation in mainland China. Findings of such an examination provide an opportunity to further discuss climate vulnerability with the view that it is “a multidimensional process,” which involves not only cultural, institutional and political issues, but also ontological and discursive factors. To do so, we first introduce the above analytical view on climate vulnerability and present a brief overview of NGOs climate-related activities in China. We then focus on three cases of Chinese NGOs that have taken up various steps in advocacy and capacity building related to climate vulnerability. In the extended conclusion, we discuss the main trends of NGO climate response in China by comparing the three focused cases and relate the Chinese experiences back to the multidimensional nature of climate vulnerability in general. Besides some of the obvious factors such as relatively low organizational capacity and the authoritarian and restrictive institutional environment, two more immediate reasons contribute to the lack of NGO presence in addressing and responding to climate vulnerability in China: First, the complex process of climate-related knowledge production and the cognitive obstacles for Chinese NGOs to enter the field. Second, the eminent dominance of the state in climate-related policymaking space has reduced the sense of efficacy among environmental NGOs and activists in this field.