US President Barack Obama on Monday touted close US cooperation with China on climate change as vital to world efforts to slow global warming, even as he acknowledged persistent differences with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) over cybersecurity and maritime security.
Huddling with Xi on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference, Obama said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or fruitful than on climate change. He credited US and Chinese leadership with leading 180 nations to make their own pledges to curb emissions in the run-up to the Paris talks.
“Our leadership on this issue has been absolutely vital,” Obama said.
Photo: AP
However, Obama also invoked hot-button issues that have long vexed US-China relations as he and Xi opened their meeting.
Obama said the US and China have developed a “candid way of discussing these issues,” adding that he hoped to build on that tradition during his meeting with Xi.
“Our teams have found ways to work through these tensions in a constructive fashion,” he said.
Xi, speaking through a translator, said that global worries made it even more important for the US and China to work together. He called for the US and China to build a new model of cooperation, using diplomatic language long preferred by Beijing.
As the conference got underway, Britain’s Prince Charles — delivering the keynote speech — issued a rallying cry to world leaders to address climate change, describing it as the greatest threat faced by humanity. The prince urged world leaders to think of their grandchildren in seeking a deal. Echoing the sentiment offered by former British prime minister Winston Churchill to Battle of Britain pilots during World War II, he said that “rarely in human history have so many people around the world placed their trust in so few.”
The heir to Britain’s throne and champion of green causes told delegates: “I urge you to consider the needs of the youngest generation, because none of us has the right to assume that for our today they should give up their tomorrow.”
Obama called the Paris climate talks an “act of defiance” by the world community following the Islamic State-linked attacks in Paris two weeks ago. Obama painted a dire picture of the future without aggressive action to curb carbon emissions. He described submerged countries, abandoned cities and fields that would not produce crops. He drew a link with the refugee crisis, saying climate change would lead desperate peoples to seek sanctuaries outside their home nations.
In his address to the conference, Xi said that an eventual global climate deal must include aid for poor countries and acknowledge differences between developing and established economies.
An agreement should also include the transfer of climate technology to developing countries, he added.
A deal should accommodate national interests, he said, adding that “it’s imperative to respect differences” among countries, especially developing ones.
“Addressing climate change should not deny the legitimate needs of developing countries to reduce poverty and improve living standards,” he said.
The question of what to expect from rich and poor countries is a key sticking point in the talks. The last climate deal, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, only required developed countries to cut manmade emissions.
Western countries say that this time all countries must chip in, including China, the world’s biggest emitter.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique