China hit President-elect Donald Trump a second time in a matter of just a few days. The first attack happened a few days ago when a Chinese state-run newspaper advised Trump that a trade war against China will have dire consequences on American businesses, including the iPhone. Soon after that, a Chinese consumer group announced its investigating the iPhone following reports of malfunctioning iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s units in the region. The second response to one of Trump’s wild campaign promises came directly from a Chinese government official on Wednesday, and it concerns a major issue: Climate change.
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Trump has accused China more than once of conceiving the global warming hoax to hurt American manufacturing.
https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/780578429426991105/
Following Trump’s surprising election, many wondered what the US would do when it comes to the Paris Climate Agreement, of which America is one of the most prominent backers.
China, too, signed the agreement, and the two superpowers were joined by many other countries. The goal of the agreement is to reduce pollution and greenhouse effects to keep climate change below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels through 2100.
There are worries that the initiative could fail, in case Trump’s administration decides not to go through with America’s commitments. China is worried too.
“If you look at the history of climate change negotiations, actually it was initiated by the IPCC with the support of the Republicans during the Reagan and senior Bush administration during the late 1980s,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, practically calling Trump a liar.
Liu said that China will continue its fight against climate change “whatever the circumstances,” Bloomberg reports. “Of course we’re still expecting developed countries including the United States will continue to take the lead on mitigating climate change,” he said, adding that richer nations should take more responsibility than poor countries fighting climate change.
The official also said that China’s President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of cooperation between the two largest economies when talking to Trump on Monday.
Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry told delegates at a meeting in Morocco on the Paris Agreement that he could not offer any promises on what Trump will do while in office.
“No one has a right to make decisions for billions of people based solely on ideology,” Kerry said. “Climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It isn’t a partisan issue for our military. It isn’t a partisan issue for our intelligence community.”
“I can’t stand here and speculate about what policies our President-elect will pursue,” Kerry also said, according to Mashable. “In the time I’ve spent in public life, one of the things I’ve learned is that some issues look a bit different when you’re actually in office compared to when you’re on the campaign trail.”
