US President Barack Obama took a walk alone on the Great Wall yesterday, wrapping up a visit to China with a visit to the ancient fortifications that symbolize the country’s history and separateness.
“It’s magical. It reminds you of the sweep of history,” Obama said after breaking away from his tour guides to walk alone along the parapets, hands jammed into his pockets against the cold and wind.
“It gives you a good perspective on a lot of the day-to-day things. They don’t amount to much in the scope of history,” he said.
Ties between the US and China have grown so much since that the two economies are now deeply intertwined, while the US must accommodate China’s growing influence on the world stage.
The Obama trip did not yield immediate breakthroughs on the many issues the two giant economies face, foremost among them currency and protectionism. But it did keep the lines of dialogue open and was accompanied by professions of friendship.
“Our time here on Earth is not that long and we better make the best of it,” Obama said at the Wall, before heading off to South Korea, the final leg of his Asia trip.
Earlier, observers in the US and China said that a joint statement by the US and Chinese presidents on climate change was encouraging as pressure builds in the last few weeks before a 192-nation conference in Copenhagen, but said the language left a lot unsaid.
The world’s two largest polluters talked on Tuesday of a joint desire to tackle climate change, but failed to publicly address the root problems that could unravel a deal at the Dec. 7 to Dec. 18 conference — mainly, how much each country can contribute to emissions cuts and how the world will pay for it.
The joint statement by Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has positive language about aiming for a comprehensive deal, “but it leaves a lot of room for different interpretations, ranging from a real ambitious climate rescue deal to another meaningless declaration,” said Ailun Yang, climate campaign manager for Greenpeace China. “The real test is still at Copenhagen.”
Three weeks remain before the global conference that aims for a deal to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required 37 industrial countries to cut heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.
The Copenhagen agreement would require developing countries such as China to curb emissions growth as well.
In a joint statement, Obama and Hu said Copenhagen should produce a comprehensive agreement that “include[s] emission reduction targets of developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries.”
Hu said countries would do their part “consistent with our respective capabilities,” a reference to the now widely accepted view that developing nations like China should be required only to set goals for curbing emissions, not accept absolute targets.
Timothy Wirth, president of the UN Foundation, a charity group that promotes UN causes, praised the US-China joint statement for saying a deal at Copenhagen should include emission reduction targets by developed countries, but he stressed the urgency of finding a final agreement.
“Reaching a deal in Copenhagen will be hard enough; leaving all the negotiations to the last minute could make it unachievable,” he said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Already, US officials acknowledge that the Copenhagen talks were not expected to produce a final legal agreement. White House aides said on Sunday that a fully binding legal agreement would be put off until a meeting in Mexico City in December next year.
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