Since
assuming his presidency, U.S. President Joe Biden has followed Trump's tariff
policy and sanctions against China, agreeing with the Trump administration's
determination that the Chinese government's treatment of Uighur Muslims in
Xinjiang constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. But unlike Trump,
the Biden administration also considers climate change as an "existential
threat" while seeing China as the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st
century.
Given that China is already the world's largest carbon emitter and owns half of
the world's coal-fired power plants, the Biden administration must work more
closely with China if it wants to reach its goal of keeping global temperature
rise at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The
Washington Post revealed that discussions between Biden's climate envoy, John
Kerry, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, had previously stalled because
Beijing insisted that cooperation on climate would not begin amid tensions over
human rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan, trade and a host of other issues.
The
report said that Kerry has repeatedly pushed for direct diplomacy between Biden
and Chinese President Xi Jinping, arguing that improved bilateral ties could
produce better results in Scotland. White House aides, including national
security adviser Jake Sullivan, are skeptical that the United States can
persuade China to reduce emissions.
Sullivan
said at a security conference this spring that he would not trade cooperation
with China on climate change as a favor from Beijing to the United States. He
also repeated this position during a meeting in Zurich earlier this month with
Yang Jiechi, the Communist Party's highest-ranking diplomatic official.
The Washington Post reports that liberal lawmakers and climate activists are
concerned about tensions between the U.S. and China and fear that the upcoming
Scottish climate conference will ultimately be inconclusive.
The
report said Kerry has advocated a phone call between Biden and Xi since early
summer to avoid such an outcome, but Sullivan disagreed and argued that such a
call would be premature.
Deputy
Secretary Wendy Sherman and Kerry's disappointing trip to China "finally
united the Biden team in support of the two presidents or the President to make
the necessary contacts".
The
newspaper quoted a U.S. official as saying, "With the concentration of
power in Xi's hands, we assessed that there needed to be high-level contacts to
move things forward". As a result, Biden had a 90-minute call with Xi on
Sept. 9.
After Sullivan's six-hour meeting with Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang
Jiechi in Zurich last month, the U.S. and China agreed on a virtual summit
between Biden and Xi Jinping before the end of the year.
