Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday delivered John Kerry the message that China does not accept the Biden administration’s game of harassing it generally, while expecting to make nice on climate change.
Wang told Kerry, who is visiting China Sept. 1-3 with the aim of winning Beijing to the COP26 agenda, that “climate change cooperation cannot be separated from general U.S.-China ties,” reported Global Times. “The U.S. hopes to make climate change an `oasis’ of China-U.S. relations, but if the `oasis’ is surrounded by `desert,’ the `oasis’ will sooner or later become desert…. The U.S. should meet China halfway and take positive actions to bring bilateral ties back on the right track,” wrote Global Times. Wang continued that “instead of viewing China as a threat and rival and suppressing it, the U.S. should attach great importance and actively respond to the `two lists’ and `three bottom lines’ proposed by China, take concrete actions to improve ties, not to create more problems when the previous ones have yet to be solved,” Global Times further reported.
The “two lists” refers to the lists presented to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during her meeting with China’s Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng on July 25. The first list called on the U.S. to revoke visa restrictions on CPC members, leaders, and students; stop suppressing Chinese businesses; harassing students and media; and suppressing Confucian Institutes; and to release Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is being held in Canada against a U.S. extradition demand. The second list incorporated individual cases. The “three bottom lines” were presented to Sherman by Wang Yi during the same July visit, demanding that the U.S. not: subvert socialism with Chinese characteristics; obstruct China’s development process with sanctions and technology blockades; or undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
Kerry was shown on CCTV speaking of how China had a “super-critical” role to play in ensuring that COP26 is a success. The State Department’s own short read-out on the Kerry-Wang discussion merely emphasized that Kerry spoke to Wang about the need for world cooperation “to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,” and that Kerry had “encouraged the P.R.C. to take additional steps to reduce emissions.” It appears he went home empty handed.
Wang by the way, met by videoconference with Kerry, who was in Tianjin.
