When President Joe Biden meets with world leaders at the COP26 climate summit this weekend in Glasgow, whatever policy proposals he may pledge, it is imperative that he do so with open eyes toward the world’s largest polluter, China.
The need for scrutiny of China’s actions is critical for three reasons. First, China is by far the world’s largest producer of carbon emissions, accounting for nearly twice as much carbon emissions as the next largest polluter, the United States. Second, President Xi Jinping’s Communist Party is demonstrably untrustworthy. Third, China is trying to leverage the issue of climate change in order to extract policy concessions in other areas. If Biden fails to put these concerns at the center of his COP26 dealings, China will exploit it.
Even though Xi won’t personally attend the summit, the risks of Biden’s misjudgment are significant. Biden has claimed that climate change is the world’s greatest challenge, but then he has appointed one of the world’s worst negotiators to lead U.S. efforts to address this challenge — former Secretary of State John Kerry.
China has made clear that it does not intend to cooperate fully on carbon emissions unless, among other things, the U.S. drops support for Taiwan and ends criticism of China’s appalling human rights record.
Kerry has been pushing Biden to dance to China’s waltz. National security adviser Jake Sullivan is reportedly resisting this. But Sen. Marco Rubio has suggested that Kerry is unilaterally obstructing Senate passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Act. That legislation targets China’s use of forced labor by Uyghur minority citizens in the concentration camps it has established in Xinjiang province. The Trump and Biden administrations have both recognized the Xinjiang situation as a genocide.
Kerry’s gambit is even more pathetic considering Chinese concessions on climate change are worthless.
For all its climate rhetoric, China has spent the past three years constructing hundreds of dirty coal-fired power plants. China faces sustained power shortages and will likely bring even more coal plants online in spite of any new climate agreements it strikes.
Were Biden to accept Kerry’s argument, it would teach Chinese officials that they can use pretend climate change concessions to extract real-world policy concessions from the U.S. In time, Biden could be forced to tolerate Chinese intellectual property theft and trade manipulation, abandon Taiwan, and accept China’s imperial seizure of the South China Sea. He might have to accept what his own administration has already labeled a genocide, forfeiting any right to talk about human rights anywhere.
In addition, Kerry’s silliness will encourage other nations to act similarly, demanding that the U.S. abandon its legitimate interests in exchange for their taking climate action, real or imagined. The world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter, Russia, might demand sanctions relief in return for new commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
China, not climate change, is America’s top foreign policy concern. Biden should act accordingly and relieve Kerry of his duties.
