Beijing has told our leadership: Nope, we don’t want to. But thanks for asking. Our Climate Envoy, John Kerry, arrived in China last Sunday. The purpose of his trip is to ask China to redouble its efforts on climate change emissions.
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China’s economy produces more carbon dioxide in a year than all of the industrialized economies of the world combined. The problem is getting worse, not better, in China despite their utterances to the contrary. China is opening two new coal-fired electric generation plants per week.
Western countries are shutting our coal plants down. That is what Mr. Kerry is going to be negotiating for three days. Don’t expect any change or concessions. China is all about what’s best for China.
China’s response to Mr. Kerry is China installs more solar and wind capacity than all other countries in the world. Last week, however, the South China Morning Post reported President Xi’s comment, that“… While solar and wind are important. It is more important that the country has reliable energy. China will get that from oil and coal…” China believes it has become too reliant on energy harvested from solar and wind. The use of those sources is too unpredictable, too unreliable, and has led to power shortages.
Last week the Chinese outlet The Global Times said, Beijing wants the oil and coal, but it might be willing to make a deal, but they will need a sweetener to motivate them to change their plans. Experts are pessimistic about Mr. Kerry’s mission yielding results unless the U.S. shows sincerity in improving ties with China.
China is telling America and the West they will play ball. But… they are only going to do so if they get reductions in tariffs, more favorable trade terms, and removal of the U.S. military from the South China Sea.
Okay, so riddle me this. If China thought climate change was a man-made, real, immediate, urgent threat, that’s what Biden tells us it is, what European leaders tell their citizens. If China believed the climate narrative, wouldn’t they work to stop or reverse it?
Think about it. Isn’t that what they did with the one-child policy when they thought overpopulation was a real threat? The Chinese act is based on self-preservation. Nobody would have to tell them to act. Bargaining would be unnecessary.
But the Chinese don’t want to act on the climate narrative. Instead, they are building coal plants at a record rate. They have been doing so for a long time and plan to continue.
What if the Chinese are looking around and seeing the rest of the world harming their own economies because of climate change? What if China is amused by what’s going on? What if everyone else weakens their own economies, trying to operate more cleanly? Troubling, no?
What if the Chinese focus on growing their economy so they can dominate the future? What if their strategy is to become the dominant economic force so they can build dominant military strength? What if the Chinese have a stranglehold on solar panels and chips and AI in the future? What if we all learn Mandarin?
Or maybe we could wake up and fly right. We can be energy independent. We can make our own weapons. We can feed ourselves. Commonsense doesn’t cost a nickel, and it can keep us free and self-governing. Just saying… What if?
