U.S. President Joe Biden at his first press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 25, 2021.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced Wednesday (April 21) that Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Climate Change Leadership Summit by video and deliver a speech in Beijing on April 22 at the invitation of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Xinhua, the official media of the Communist Party of China, released the message on its official microblog on Wednesday morning. It will also be the first time since Biden took office that he will meet with Xi on the same stage.
Biden announced in late March that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and 40 other leaders had been invited to a video summit of climate leaders scheduled for April 22 and 23 in the United States to discuss climate change issues.
U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry visited Shanghai, China, from April 14 to 16 and met with Chinese Communist Party Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua. Since then, the U.S. and China issued a joint statement on April 18, saying that “both countries look forward to the U.S.-hosted leaders’ climate summit on April 22-23.
In addition, Xi Jinping said during a video conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on April 16 that addressing climate change is a common cause for all mankind and should not become a geopolitical bargaining chip, a target for attacks on other countries or an excuse for trade barriers.
In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press on the same day, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said that China is unlikely to make any new commitments at the climate change conference. But he also noted that China will send “positive signals” at the conference, saying “China is proactively addressing climate change, not because other countries are asking for it.
Xi announced last year that China will achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and is committed to peaking its emissions by 2030. But some Western countries, including the United States, argue that Beijing’s pledged goals to curb climate change are too conservative.
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