US challenge to China’s core interests could jeopardize crucial cooperation
People longing to see an improvement in Sino-US relations are looking to the visit to China of John Kerry, US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, to ease the tense political climate between the two countries, after the recent talks between their top diplomats in Alaska served only to show the extent of the estrangement between the two sides.
They hope that, as the first senior US official to set foot in China since July, 2019, Kerry, a veteran diplomat, will not only have productive talks with China’s top climate representative when he visits Shanghai from Wednesday to Saturday, but also have cordial and fruitful discussions when he has virtual talks with other senior Chinese officials.
If the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters can agree to resume their climate exchanges, which were suspended by the previous US administration, it is hoped that it would enable the two sides to turn their climate cooperation into a crowbar to prise apart their locked horns in other fields.
However, such hopes might not be easily realized. Kerry, who is apparently well aware of the world’s attention on his visit, clarified the US stance in an interview with the media before his trip, saying that climate change is a “free-standing” issue separate from other issues where the two countries are at loggerheads.
Yet although Kerry has obviously been tasked with securing China’s support and cooperation before the virtual climate summit Biden has planned to convene next week — in a bid to demonstrate not only the significance the US attaches to the climate crisis, but more importantly to show and consolidate the US’ global leadership in this field — he must be prepared that, as it is in other fields, China will by no means act as the US dictates on climate issues, or sacrifice its core interests on it.
Ahead of his visit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has made it crystal clear that although the two countries have broad common interests and cooperation space, and have carried out productive cooperation on climate change in the past, climate cooperation should not be taken as “a flower in the greenhouse”, as it must be closely bound with the overall Sino-US relations.
China has solemnly vowed to peak its carbon emissions before 2030, and realize carbon neutrality before 2060, ambitious goals that China will resolutely pursue irrespective of the US’ attitude. And the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the hard-earned Paris Agreement has spoken volumes about the country’s qualification to act as a world leader on the issue.
The US has single-handedly ruined China’s and many other countries’ trust in it, and not just on climate issues. Without trust, no cooperation is possible.
It is unrealistic for the US administration to count on China giving support to the US on bilateral and global affairs on the one hand, while persisting with its predecessor’s policy of wantonly interfering with China’s internal affairs and harming China’s core development interests on the other.