Kerry seeks green pact with Xi on trip to Beijing

John Kerry is expected to become the first high-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China amid strained ties.

John Kerry is expected to become the first high-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China this week.

John Kerry is expected to become the first high-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China, as relations between the two superpowers are at their worst for decades.

The visit this week by the US climate envoy, which has not been confirmed, would take place less than a month after talks between the two countries’ leading diplomats in Alaska ended in acrimony.

The list of disputes includes Washington backing the Taiwanese government and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong; China’s aggressive assertion of sovereignty in the South China Sea and companies backed by Beijing disregarding intellectual property rights.

The coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has only added to the rancour.

Yet climate change is one area on which both sides hope they can find common ground. In one of his first acts in the White House, President Biden signed an executive order that committed the US to the Paris climate accords. In September President Xi announced ambitious climate targets, such as China being carbon neutral before 2060.

If confirmed, Kerry would meet Xie Zhenhua, China’s special climate envoy, who was appointed in February, and is said to have made contact with Kerry then.

Kerry, 77, a secretary of state under Barack Obama and the 2004 Democrat presidential candidate, has spoken of his hope of doing a climate deal with Beijing.

Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping toast during a State Luncheon for China hosted at the Department of State in Washington, DC in 2015.

In Anchorage, Alaska, the sides traded insults and Yang Jiechi, a senior Chinese diplomat, delivered a 15-minute tirade blasting the US for trying to lecture Beijing.

In China, international relations experts viewed Kerry’s trip as a positive sign but played down expectations. “Kerry’s possible visit proves that the US administration still has a co-operative facet in its diplomacy with China and is serious to push it forward,” Li Haidong, a professor of international relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told Global Times.

“Even if some consensus can be reached during Kerry’s possible visit in China, it will be extremely difficult for him to deliver that back to the US, given the divisions in the congress and Kerry’s limited influence in the political circle,” Li added.

The US will host a two-day Earth Day summit via video on April 22 and 23, to which it has invited the leaders of 40 countries, including China. Beijing is considering whether to participate.

The trip to China would form part of Kerry’s tour in Asia that includes visits to India, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh.

“What President Biden has said is, we will have our differences on some issues,” Kerry told India Today (Tuesday) last week. But he added: “We must co-operate on climate.”

THE TIMES