Beijing Confirms US Climate Envoy John Kerry to Visit China This Weekend Following Yellen

BEIJING, July 12 (TiPost)— Beijing confirmed that John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, is poised to be the third official at the Biden administration to visit China.

Credit：Visual China

As agreed by China and the United States, Kerry will visit China from July 16 to 19, and have in-depth exchange of views on the two countries’ cooperation on climate change, the Department of Climate Change of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China announced on Wednesday.

The announcement confirmed reports earlier this week about Kerry’s travel to China. The news brought more hope for improving cooperation between the world’s top two emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases. Kerry would launch the first formal climate talks between China and U.S. in nearly a year, and could pave for smoother negotiations at the COP28 summit in the United Arab Emirates from 30 November until 12 December.

Kerry is going to be the third U.S. official to visit China in a month. The brief trip from June 18 to 19 made Secretary of State Antony Blinken the highest ranking American official as well as the top US diplomat to visit China in almost five years. He is also the highest ranking official from the Biden administration to set foot in China since Biden took office in January 2021.

In meeting with Blinken, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that major-country competition does not represent the trend of the times, still less can it solve America’s own problems or the challenges facing the world. The U.S. Department of State said Blinken had candid and constructive conversations with Wang Yi, Director of the Communist Party of China Central Foreign Affairs Office, and State Councilor Qin Gang, covering a broad range of both bilateral and global issues. Blinken invited Qin to visit U.S. and they agreed to schedule a reciprocal visit at a mutually suitable time, according to the department.

Right after Blinken’s meet with President Xi, Kerry told Reuters that he was anxious to meet with Blinken to help determine when he will land in China for talks on addressing a global climate change crisis. U.S. President Joe Biden then expected that Kerry was going to be going back Beijing “pretty soon”.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen followed suit and wrapped up her long-anticipated trip to China last Sunday.

In a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last Friday, Yellen said the U.S. side does not seek to decouple or sever supply chains, and has no intention of hindering China’s modernization process, reported state media Xinhua News Agency. “China’s development is an opportunity rather than a challenge for the United States, and a gain rather than a risk,” Li told Yellen, cited the report. Yellen emphasized President Biden’s “desire for a healthy economic relationship with China that benefits both our economies and American workers and businesses”, in her meet with Li Qiang, according to one of her tweets that day. “We seek a healthy economic competition that benefits American workers and firms”, another Yellen’s tweet said.

In a press conference in Beijing at weekend, Yellen said she came to China to delivery  President Biden’s directive to deepen bilateral communications after his meeting with President Xi last November, just like Secretary Blinken. Yellen called her conversations with Chinese counterparts including Premier Li Qiang “direct, substantive, and productive”.  Yellen reiterated U.S. is not seeking to decouple from China, instead, it seeks a healthy economic competition with China. Yellen noted she talked with Chinese officials about the opportunity to work together to mobilize private financing for climate action, when exchanging views on macroeconomic and financial developments in China and the United States.

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