Beijing suspended bilateral cooperation with the U.S. on climate and other issues in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last month. This hasn’t stopped climate envoy John Kerry from trying to restart talks with his Chinese counterpart. At a New York Times–hosted conference yesterday, he said that he’s holding out hope — even though China’s envoy is ignoring his messages. Bloomberg reports:
“They suspended — they didn’t terminate,” Kerry said at a New York Times climate event, adding that it was a conscious word choice. “I really hope China will decide sometime in the next days it is worth coming back to this because we owe it to humankind.”
“I have emailed,” Kerry said. “He’s not allowed to answer me, and it’s very complicated.”
“And he hasn’t,” he quickly added.
The Chinese government’s conduct seems to show that Beijing views climate-cooperation talks as an instrument with which it can influence U.S. policy in other areas. Given Kerry’s statements on human rights, that strategy might be yielding some results.