Climate Czar John Kerry will be in Beijing Monday, July 17, to worry about the weather with his Communist Chinese Party (CCP) counterparts – who aren’t worrying about the weather. The Kerry trip is just part of the parade of high-level US visitors to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to extend the right hand of friendship to a government that has shown no inclination toward reciprocity. Not long ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the PRC to help repair US-China relations and achieved nothing but a rebuff when the subject of resuming military-to-military talks was raised. So what makes the failed presidential candidate think he’ll be any more successful in the Orient?
Most recently, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen held meetings with her opposites in China. The takeaway was: “In 10 hours of meetings Friday and Saturday, Yellen said she sought to convince China’s newly installed economic team that the US isn’t bent on seeking ‘economic advantage’ against the country,” Bloomberg reported. Wait just a second. The US is in economic competition with the PRC, the outcome of which could spell the end of American prominence in world markets, and the US Treasury Secretary says we don’t want an economic advantage? That is ludicrous; of course we do. We want to win the global economic struggle we are in with China.
John Kerry Will Meet Chinese Counterparts
Enter Mr. Climate, who will meet with the CCP’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment representatives. As often happens before high-level discussions with the Biden administration, expectations for the outcome are set appropriately low. “Climate experts have said they do not expect Kerry’s trip to add much momentum to climate negotiations, given ongoing political tensions between the two sides, but there are potential areas of cooperation on issues like the abatement of methane, a potent greenhouse gas,” Reuters explained. There is more grist for the mill leading observers to see the Kerry climate diplomacy as unlikely to produce positive results for US international policy. “During meetings with PRC officials, Secretary Kerry aims to engage with the PRC on addressing the climate crisis, including with respect to increasing implementation and ambition and promoting a successful COP28,” a State Department media note announced. COP28 is a United Nations-sponsored international climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates in November 2023.
Unfortunately, John Kerry will represent the US in Beijing, carrying a lot of credibility baggage. The US climate guru frequently criticizes the brutal, unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine – but not because of the carnage, death, and destruction Moscow has visited on Ukrainian civilians, businesses, and the courageous soldiers of Kyiv. Oh, no. It’s because pitched battles, artillery exchanges, and missile strikes on innocent civilians emit greenhouse gases. As Liberty Nation reported just before Russian infantry, tanks, fighter aircraft, and artillery pieces attacked outnumbered Kyiv government defenders, Kerry had an odd perspective. “Rather than being primarily worried about a potential World War III – possibly involving nuclear weapons, destabilizing the world economy, and social instability rippling through the political systems – he regards climate change as a more significant threat,” LN explained.
John Kerry Will Have an Unwelcome Message
John Kerry (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
More recently, the Republican National Committee’s RNC Research tweeted Mr. Climate’s words where “John Kerry laments the war in Ukraine is ‘exacerbating the problem’ on climate change: ‘When you have bombs going off, and you have damage to septic tanks or to power centers, etc., you have an enormous release of greenhouse gas.’” Kerry’s comments were made on July 11 in an interview on MSNBC. If that’s the message the US climate envoy carries to Beijing, it’s doubtful it will be received warmly.
First, by saying that stuff, Kerry confirms he is not in touch with the real world. Second, the PRC’s internal climate policies reflect that China’s President Xi Jinping could not care less about climate change consequences. “The European Union’s climate chief has expressed concern over the expansion of China’s coal industry with the building of new coal-fired plants…Official plans called for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons last year, at least the third consecutive year of growth,” The Australian reported. Coal-fired power plants are one of the biggest generators of the CO2 and other greenhouse gases about which Kerry is so worried.
As with his two Biden administration predecessors, Blinken and Yellen, Kerry is on a diplomatic mission of questionable value. Clearly, Biden’s interagency foreign outreach team is interested in talk for talk’s sake. The only tangible output from the trip will likely be the greenhouse gases emitted from the jet engines taking Mr. Climate to Beijing.
