Biden will hold a global climate summit in late April. But the Beijing authorities announced on the 15th that Xi Jinping held a video conference on climate issues with French President Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, just as Biden’s climate envoy was visiting China. The Chinese side’s move is seen by public opinion as a move to draw in the EU and deliberately embarrass Biden.
Biden will hold a global climate summit from April 22 to 23, and plans to invite more than 40 global leaders, including Xi Jinping, and sent climate envoy Kerry to China to pave the way for this.
On April 14, Kerry arrived in Shanghai, becoming the first senior official to visit China since Biden took office. But during Kerry’s visit, Beijing authorities announced that Xi Jinping had discussed climate issues with Macron and Merkel on April 16. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called it a “climate summit.
AFP reported that Xi condemned “trade barriers erected in the name of climate change” during a videoconference with Macron and Merkel.
Xi also described Beijing as a champion of the poor and called on developed economies to “show a model for reducing carbon emissions” and to provide financial and technical support to developing countries facing climate change.
The French newspaper Le Monde considered it unusual that it was an invited country, the Chinese Communist Party, that announced Xi Jinping’s invitation by Macron to participate in the video conference, contrary to usual practice. The Chinese side did so, giving the impression that Europe and China were holding a climate summit ahead of each other, as if they were competing with the United States.
According to reports, a tripartite climate summit between China, Germany and France was planned weeks ago, but Beijing pre-empted the announcement before France announced it. But the timing of the Chinese announcement coincided with the visit of the U.S. climate envoy to China.
Therefore, it is believed that by announcing Xi’s videoconference with the French and German leaders first, the Chinese Communist Party intended to embarrass Biden on the one hand, and to provoke conflicts between the US and Europe on the other.
Jennifer Tollmann, an expert at E3G, a leading EU environmental policy research think tank, said that for China, the public meeting of the three leaders a week before the Biden-hosted climate summit has the potential to set off a fierce rivalry between the U.S. and Europe, and for Beijing to show internally that it is not caving in to U.S. pressure.
Long Di (Dimitri de Boer), head of the NGO Earth Client China, told Le Monde that Xi wanted to emphasize that China considers its relationship with the EU more important than its relationship with the US on climate and environmental issues.
According to the Central News Agency, Macron has adopted the strategy of the French-German common front to face the Chinese Communist Party since Xi’s visit to Paris 2 years ago, when he also invited Merkel and the president of the European Union Executive Committee to the Elysee Palace for talks.
For the tripartite video summit just held, the French presidency told the media that the talks were not an occasion to discuss climate issues, which are negotiated and negotiated at the EU level.
For its part, the German government also stressed that the French president and the German chancellor talked upstream that day on the global climate summit held from 22 to 23 initiated by the United States.
Recent Comments