Qin Gang, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, has said the US “must bear full responsibility for the current situation across the Taiwan Straits”, reports Chinese state media.
China’s actions in the waters around Taiwan are “necessary and legitimate measures to deter separatist forces on the island, safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. With prior warnings, the Chinese side matches its words with actions,” Qin was quoted as saying by Global Times.
.@AmbQinGang sternly rejected US’ unreasonable accusations on Chinese military countermeasures when meeting with White House national security officials, saying the US side must bear full responsibility for the current situation across the Taiwan Straits. https://t.co/qF6a7W9H0s
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 6, 2022
Updated
Beijing is freezing its cooperation with Washington on global warming, but experts are hoping that, for the sake of humanity, the cold spell between the world’s two largest emitters is only temporary, reports Agence France-Presse.
AFP has the following analysis:
The unraveling relationship comes not long after China and the US announced a surprise agreement to strengthen climate action at the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021...
IPCC author Francois Gemenne called China’s decision a “total disaster for the climate... comparable to the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement.”
Former president Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement, but his successor Joe Biden returned the country to the accord in 2021.
The temporary US withdrawal has nonetheless been accompanied by backtracking on domestic and foreign climate policy, experts say.
China’s announcement, on the other hand, is “certainly not a withdrawal from the world stage on climate issues or a rejection of climate action,” David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s international climate initiative, told AFP.
Mohamed Adow, founder of the Power Shift Africa energy think tank echoed that sentiment, adding that “breaking off diplomacy doesn’t mean China is backtracking on its commitments,” particularly as, “in many respects, China is way ahead of the US when it comes to action on climate change.
Biden has pledged to cut US emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
But his ambitions have been thwarted by failure to push green energy projects and climate initiatives through Congress, although some progress has been made in recent days.
For its part, China, which is the leading emitter of greenhouse gases in absolute value but far behind the US in emissions per capita, has committed to reaching peak emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.”
