China Has US Over Climate Barrel

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry (L) gestures as he speaks next to China's special climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua (R), during a session at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switerland, on May 24, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

America’s climate guy, John Kerry, is on his way to China. His battered reputation is again on the line. This time, it’s not just for falling off his bike. Mr. Kerry has to prove to Democratic voters, who foresee global catastrophe from climate change, that he can close a deal at COP28, the upcoming international climate conference in Dubai.

A big agreement at the conference, which would put Mr. Kerry on the front page of The Washington Post as a hero, can only happen with Beijing’s cooperation, since China is the world’s biggest polluter. If Mr. Kerry can’t get a deal with Beijing during his trip there, July 16 to 19, he could be discarded by Democrat public opinion as a has-been negotiator-in-chief.

That makes him about as desperate for a deal as his Democratic constituency, which makes him a lousy negotiator.

Beijing knows it has Mr. Kerry over a barrel, because unlike Mr. Kerry’s boss, President Joe Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has no voters to whom he must answer. Deal or no deal, Mr. Xi will be in power after 2024. But without a deal, Mr. Biden’s voters could turn against him, and out will be Mr. Biden, Mr. Kerry, and the rest of the Democratic administration, like Janet Yellen and Antony Blinken, that places so much faith in their engagement with Beijing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2L) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (L) attend a session on Climate Change during the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogues at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on June 6, 2016. Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP

Mr. Kerry’s official title is United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Now age 79, he has been negotiating with the enemies of the United States since at least 1970, when he reportedly visited Paris and spoke with North Vietnam’s foreign minister about releasing its prisoners of war. He was then a U.S. Navy Reserve officer acting in a private capacity. He met with a North Vietnamese official a second time in 1971. After these apparently unsanctioned meetings with the enemy, Mr. Kerry testified before the U.S. Senate, where he “pushed for an immediate, unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces,” according to Fox News.

Mr. Kerry’s political career soared, and he is now the chief U.S. climate negotiator. Beijing smells opportunity and is attempting to use the climate issue to extort U.S. concessions on entirely unrelated matters, such as Taiwan, Xinjiang, and tariffs.

China Uses Climate to Leverage US

According to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong paper ultimately controlled by the CCP, Washington is on the back foot in negotiations with Beijing as it “tries to put a floor in the relationship.”

The Morning Post quoted an anonymous “mainland climate expert” as referencing a visit by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Taiwan and saying, “There is simply no way for climate change to stay insulated from the overall political ties, as Kerry and the US side have consistently requested.”

Since Ms. Pelosi’s visit almost a year ago, Beijing has suspended cooperation on climate talks with the United States.

In other words, the CCP is going to let the world broil unless we cough up Taiwan. That’s extortion, clear and simple, and fits the CCP’s gangster look.

Taiwan isn’t the only concession Beijing seeks for closing down its coal-fired power plants.

In an article about Mr. Kerry’s upcoming trip, China Daily cited tariffs and sanctions, including on the Xinjiang regions where there is an ongoing genocide, as stumbling blocks to an agreement.

The article cited a Chinese foreign ministry report that stated, “Relevant US measures have not only impeded normal trade in PV [photo-voltaic] products and disrupted normal supply chains, but also undermined global efforts in countering climate change.”

Only by “correcting” these “wrong practices” could the United States “create an enabling environment for climate cooperation with China,” according to the article.

The CCP’s nationalist tabloid, the Global Times, raised additional issues in its reporting about the Kerry visit, including “crackdowns on Chinese firms” and the treatment of two-way investments “fairly.”

That Beijing would attempt linkage of these issues to climate negotiations, rather than the United States, should indicate that Beijing is in a better bargaining position on climate and so can use it to leverage other issues. But the opposite is true.

According to the World Bank, China’s climate risk is higher than that of the United States because of higher than average projected temperature increases and “very high exposure to flooding ... including, riverine, flash, and coastal, and very high exposure to tropical cyclones and their associated hazards.” Drought exposure and “social vulnerability” add to China’s higher risks from climate change.

The uneven distribution of climate pain means that China stands to lose more than the United States and so should be more eager for a climate change deal. Mr. Kerry should have the upper hand in negotiations, but he projects the opposite, in another Biden administration trip to Beijing that makes the United States look the supplicant rather than the agenda setter.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.