Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping Absent from the Group of 20 summits in Rome and this week’s global climate talks in Scotland, criticized by the US president Joe Biden and questions about China’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide and has pledged to reduce that production by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The US and others have urged Beijing to make bigger commitments, but Xi’s administration has firmly implied that they will only come in return. for political concessions.
China has imposed strict restrictions on travel coronavirus pandemic And Xi has not left the country since visiting neighboring Myanmar in January 2020.
It was only a few weeks before the outbreak, believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spread across the world. China has come under enormous pressure to reveal more information about origin of the pandemic And he has been accused of mismanaging the outbreak and then trying to hide his mistakes.
China has also come under heavy criticism for its policies towards Muslims in its Xinjiang region and its crackdown on civil rights in Hong Kong. Like all Chinese leaders, Xi is extremely image-conscious and his public appearances are carefully choreographed to avoid potentially embarrassing confrontations.
His formerly heavy itinerary took him across continents, with First Lady Peng Liyuan, a skilled musician, adding a little glamor and a human touch.
Those trips included visits to several African countries and a meeting with the former Japanese emperor in Tokyo. Xi rode in the gilded cart with Britain Queen Elizabeth and visited the capital of North Korea, which included a ride through city streets lined by thousands of enthusiastic citizens of the hard-line communist state.
Such visits have underscored China’s more assertive foreign policy, as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to expand its influence beyond East Asia with Xi’s signature “Belt and Road” foreign infrastructure investment program.
The president’s decision not to attend meetings in Rome and Glasgow seems to contradict that policy, though Xi is not alone. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has aligned itself with China in countering US influence in world affairs, also stayed home.
“I think it’s a big mistake for China to not come before China,” Biden said on Monday. COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.
“They have lost the ability to influence people around the world and everyone here at the COP – in the same way, I would argue with respect to Russia,” Biden said.
Responding to Biden’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that China’s response to climate change is “concrete” and pointed to recent achievements in deforestation and renewable energy.
The friction in bilateral relations is complicating cooperation on climate change between the two countries, said Xi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University.
Biden sees COP26 as “an important opportunity for China and the US to compete for global influence, ideology and image,” said Xi, who criticized Xi’s absence from meetings as China’s handling of the pandemic. attributed to the “zero tolerance” approach, which has been largely controlled within the country.
Despite not leaving China, Xi has been in touch with foreign heads of state through virtual meetings, said Zhao Keijin, who teaches international relations at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
Zhao said the US wants Chinese cooperation in responding to climate change, but Beijing is also looking for changes in US policy, including its support for the self-governing island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. claims, Zhao said.
“This result was caused by the US’s failure to integrate ties with China into its overall multilateral relationship,” Zhao said.
China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide and has pledged to reduce that production by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The US and others have urged Beijing to make bigger commitments, but Xi’s administration has firmly implied that they will only come in return. for political concessions.
China has imposed strict restrictions on travel coronavirus pandemic And Xi has not left the country since visiting neighboring Myanmar in January 2020.
It was only a few weeks before the outbreak, believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spread across the world. China has come under enormous pressure to reveal more information about origin of the pandemic And he has been accused of mismanaging the outbreak and then trying to hide his mistakes.
China has also come under heavy criticism for its policies towards Muslims in its Xinjiang region and its crackdown on civil rights in Hong Kong. Like all Chinese leaders, Xi is extremely image-conscious and his public appearances are carefully choreographed to avoid potentially embarrassing confrontations.
His formerly heavy itinerary took him across continents, with First Lady Peng Liyuan, a skilled musician, adding a little glamor and a human touch.
Those trips included visits to several African countries and a meeting with the former Japanese emperor in Tokyo. Xi rode in the gilded cart with Britain Queen Elizabeth and visited the capital of North Korea, which included a ride through city streets lined by thousands of enthusiastic citizens of the hard-line communist state.
Such visits have underscored China’s more assertive foreign policy, as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to expand its influence beyond East Asia with Xi’s signature “Belt and Road” foreign infrastructure investment program.
The president’s decision not to attend meetings in Rome and Glasgow seems to contradict that policy, though Xi is not alone. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has aligned itself with China in countering US influence in world affairs, also stayed home.
“I think it’s a big mistake for China to not come before China,” Biden said on Monday. COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow.
“They have lost the ability to influence people around the world and everyone here at the COP – in the same way, I would argue with respect to Russia,” Biden said.
Responding to Biden’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that China’s response to climate change is “concrete” and pointed to recent achievements in deforestation and renewable energy.
The friction in bilateral relations is complicating cooperation on climate change between the two countries, said Xi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University.
Biden sees COP26 as “an important opportunity for China and the US to compete for global influence, ideology and image,” said Xi, who criticized Xi’s absence from meetings as China’s handling of the pandemic. attributed to the “zero tolerance” approach, which has been largely controlled within the country.
Despite not leaving China, Xi has been in touch with foreign heads of state through virtual meetings, said Zhao Keijin, who teaches international relations at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
Zhao said the US wants Chinese cooperation in responding to climate change, but Beijing is also looking for changes in US policy, including its support for the self-governing island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. claims, Zhao said.
“This result was caused by the US’s failure to integrate ties with China into its overall multilateral relationship,” Zhao said.
.