China’s top climate negotiator used the U.N.’s ongoing climate conference to spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda about Taiwan, as climate envoy John Kerry holds out hope that Beijing will undertake climate cooperation talks in good faith.
Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua falsely claimed during a speech at the COP27 conference in Egypt today that China had provided Taiwan assistance to implement climate-related initiatives. The comment was intended to convey the sense that Beijing has sovereignty over the island.
“Within the policy of One China, we have provided assistance to Taiwan to implement climate policies,” Xie said, according to a Straits Times report today.
That claim is false because Beijing has not in fact provided that sort of assistance, Taiwan’s presidential office told the paper in a statement. Taiwan’s presidential spokesperson also said that Taiwan doesn’t need China’s help on that front: “Taiwan’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 far exceeds China’s commitments on climate change.”
The incident demonstrates that Beijing views global climate diplomacy efforts as an effective channel through which to advance its goals in other areas.
Xie was appointed by Beijing to be Kerry’s counterpart in early 2021, as the U.S. and China undertook a series of talks intended to produce cooperation on climate change between the two countries. Throughout this process, Chinese officials have appeared preoccupied with holding climate cooperation as a reward for U.S. compliance with Beijing’s preferred approaches to other issues. The Biden administration has claimed that it won’t let its pursuit of these talks undermine U.S. policies in other, unrelated areas.
After House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan this past August, Beijing suspended Xie’s interactions with Kerry, and the Chinese diplomat temporarily cut off all contact with the U.S. official, according to Kerry.
Then, this week, Xie suggested that Washington would need to make amends for Pelosi’s support of Taiwan.
“We hope the U.S. will take the initiative to clear the barriers,” Xie said about the stalled talks at the U.N. conference, the Guardian reported. “I think the door was absolutely closed by them. We in China are trying to open it.” Xie said that informal discussions with Kerry’s teams had begun again, something that Kerry confirmed during an event at the summit: “I stand ready to negotiate.” A source told the New York Times that Kerry and Xie had spoken at least three times during the summit.
Last year, Kerry made headlines for saying that combating Beijing’s mass atrocities against Uyghurs are “not my lane” while standing next to Xie during a press conference to unveil a framework agreement on reducing methane emissions.