Chinese Leader Xi to Attend Climate Change Summit Video Conference With France, Germany: State Media

Chinese leader Xi Jinping applauds at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 10, 2021. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will attend a climate change leaders summit video conference on April 16 with France and Germany, said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, according to a report by state media Xinhua news agency.

Xi will attend at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the report.

Meanwhile, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is in talks in China this week. The former secretary of state has scheduled meetings with Chinese officials on Thursday and Friday, ahead of President Joe Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate scheduled for later this month, and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later this year.

The United States is “sending the absolute wrong signal” by sending John Kerry on a trip to China to discuss “raising global climate ambition,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said ahead of Kerry’s trip.

McCaul criticized the plans in a statement released this week following publication of a damning report from Bloomberg that reveals that forced labor is central to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) green energy policies.

“Ambassador Kerry is sending the absolute wrong signal by planning to travel to the People’s Republic of China to discuss climate issues,” McCaul said. “The PRC is the world’s largest carbon emitter and backer of coal power. Now reporting from Bloomberg is further revealing that forced labor and polluting industries are central to the PRC’s superficial green energy plans.”

He added, “The United States should be working with countries that want to solve international problems, not those that are creating or worsening them.”

Isabel van Brugen and Reuters contributed to this report.