Far from bringing the United States and China closer together, the G20 summit, which took place in Rome on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 October, and the current climate conference (COP) in Glasgow seem to accentuate the differences between the two major world economies. Clearly, Chinese President Xi Jinping did not want to appear alongside his American counterpart Joe Biden.
Admittedly, due to the “zero Covid” policy which, in principle, would have forced him to three weeks of quarantine on his return to China, Xi Jinping could hardly go to Europe. But its absence is not explained only by health reasons. By contenting himself with sending a video to the leaders of the G20 then a simple letter to the COP26, Xi Jinping has done the minimum. An absence that the American president did not fail to exploit, in Rome on Sunday, then in Glasgow on Tuesday.
” It’s a big mistake, frankly, on the part of China, the White House chief said at a press conference in Scotland. The rest of the world will look at China and wonder what added value it brings. And she has lost that ability to influence people around the world and those present here at the COP, in the same way you could say for Russia. “
Joe Biden targeted by propaganda
China, which is for the occasion the spokesperson for developing countries, sends the opposite message. For Beijing, it is the West who are not at the rendezvous. Xi Jinping said in his video: “Advanced countries should fulfill their commitments on official development assistance and provide more resources to developing countries. “ His letter sent to the UN for COP26 comes back to this theme: “Developed countries shouldn’t just do more [en interne], but also help developing countries to do better. “ The G7 countries pledged in 2009 to pay 100 billion dollars (71 billion euros) per year by 2020 to help developing countries cope with global warming. But this commitment has not been kept.
As Beijing commits to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions “Before 2030”, Chinese propaganda keeps pointing out that Joe Biden has not even managed to convince the Democratic Party to adopt his plan to revive the economy and fight against global warming. “How can Biden and his administration “to manage” international climate action, when he is not even capable of leading his own country? “, notice it Chinese nationalist daily Global Times, who is already wondering about the fate that a next Republican administration would reserve for the Biden plan.
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