A condition for the resumption of bilateral climate talks between China and the US is Washington dispelling the “negative influence” left by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last month, Beijing said yesterday.
In response to the visit on Aug. 2 and 3, China on Aug. 5 suspended bilateral cooperation with the US in a number of areas, including climate talks and dialogue between senior-level military commanders.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday, US Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry — who earlier this month said the suspension of bilateral climate talks punished the entire world — urged Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to resume the discussions.
Photo: AFP
Kerry told the newspaper that he was hopeful the countries could “get back together” ahead of the UN’s COP27 climate summit in November in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
China yesterday responded to Kerry’s remarks by stating that the resumption of climate talks with the US was dependent on actions taken by Washington to address the “negative influence” of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.
“The US side should dispel the negative influence of Pelosi scuttling to Taiwan, this is an indispensable condition of China-US climate change cooperation,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The statement also said that China would continue to participate in international forums on climate change.
Beijing’s response highlights the divergent approaches to global climate change cooperation between the world’s two largest powers.
While officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden, including Kerry, have repeatedly expressed hope that US-China cooperation on climate change would not be affected by tensions on other fronts, Beijing has rejected any separating of issues in US-China relations.
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