China's Xi snubs Kerry during Biden administration's attempt at green diplomacy
Julia Johnson
~3 minutes
Special climate envoy John Kerry failed to convince Chinese government officials to set aside the tensions between the United States and China in favor of uniting to fight climate change.
Chinese President Xi Jinping did not meet with Kerry during his visit, according to the New York Times, and he told environmental officials in Beijing that China's timeline for addressing carbon emissions would not be influenced by pressure. "The pathway and means for reaching this goal, and the tempo and intensity, should be and must be determined by ourselves, and never under the sway of others," he said, per the Chinese publication People's Daily.
In pleading with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng regarding the matter, Kerry said, “Climate should be free-standing because it is a universal threat to everybody on the planet.”
However, Kerry's appeals fell on deaf ears, as the top foreign affairs adviser to Xi, Wang Yi, told him climate action “cannot be separated from the broader environment of Chinese-U.S. relations," according to a Chinese summary of their conversation.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign/chinas-xi-snubs-kerry-biden-administrations-attempt-green-diplomacy
