How does corporate strategic orientation relate to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance in China’s evolving green-policy environment? Using 12,998 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms (2010–2023) with Bloomberg ESG scores, we compare profit- and growth-oriented firms in firm- and year-fixed-effects specifications that support associational rather than causal interpretation. Profit-oriented firms show higher ESG performance and growth-oriented firms lower; these associations are robust to continuous measures, four-quadrant classifications, threshold variation, expanded controls, and alternative fixed-effect structures. A financial-distress channel appears under an Ohlson-type measure (mediated shares of 3.9% versus 1.2%, a 3.25-fold difference that is itself statistically significant) but does not generalize to an Altman Z-score or temporally ordered specifications; we therefore present it as one possible, measure-dependent channel rather than as a transmission hub (a causal-mediation reading would require the sequential-ignorability assumptions that our design does not deliver). Among boundary conditions, moderators show only exploratory asymmetries concentrated in firm size that do not survive multiple-testing correction, whereas financing-constraint nulls are certified by equivalence testing. The growth-oriented ESG discount deepens after the 2020 dual-carbon announcement. We discuss implications for calibrated, firm-type-differentiated ESG policy.