Article Author:
Associated Press
Ken Moritsugu { . This week, a landmark climate law was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
After Congress passed the bill last Friday, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns tweeted on Sunday that the US is tackling climate change with its biggest investment ever and China will follow suit. said it should.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with its own tweet on Tuesday night. But the question is whether the United States can make it happen.
This exchange is part of a longer exchange on Twitter on the issue and epitomizes broader concerns. Limit rising temperatures. There are also those who question whether the two countries can work together due to the deterioration of relations over Taiwan.
Earlier this month, China announced a moratorium on talks with the United States on climate and several other issues as part of its response to a visit to Taiwan by senior U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. did.
Climate change is one of the few areas of cooperation between rival nations. U.S. officials criticized China's move, with Secretary of State Anthony Brinken saying, "We don't punish America, we punish the world."
China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told the United States last week to "fulfill our historical responsibilities and due obligations on climate change and stop looking for excuses for inaction." asked.
The department later tweeted part of his response, and Burns responded four days later with a tweet about the US climate bill. Using the acronym for the People's Republic of China, he concluded:
China elaborated on "Can the United States deliver?" In a second tweet, he hinted at US action, including lifting sanctions imposed last year on the exports of the solar industry from China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region following allegations of forced labor. It included eye tweets.
This exchange highlights the perception gap between a long-standing superpower that wants to lead and an emerging power that no longer wants to be constrained to follow the dictates of others. .
US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry is urging China to set more ambitious climate targets. China's response has been that its goals are realistic given its development needs as a middle-income country, while the United States has set ambitious targets that have not been met.
China's ruling Communist Party generally sets conservative goals at the national level. However, these targets are sometimes exceeded as local officials pursue them diligently.
"China should be able to do better than national targets suggest," said Cory Combs, a senior analyst at consulting firm Trivium China. "But, of course, all of these local plans are subject to failure or delay, so it is impossible to fully predict what the sum will be."
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