new York In his speech at the UN general debate on climate change, China’s head of state Xi Jinping urged more efforts to reduce emissions. He announced: “China will step up its support to other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and not build new coal-fired power plants abroad.” As an exporter, Beijing has built hundreds of these power plants in other countries. The Chinese president confirmed his will to lead the country with well over a billion inhabitants to CO2 neutrality by 2060.
Xi also emphasized the importance of international cooperation. “Differences and problems between countries, which are unavoidable, must be addressed through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” said Xi on Tuesday in his taped speech to the meeting in New York. Dialogue and inclusion should be sought instead of confrontation and exclusion.
Without naming the United States directly, he added that “outside military intervention and so-called democratic transformation does nothing but harm”. The world is big enough to allow common development and progress for all countries, Xi said. “The success of one country does not have to mean the failure of another country.” It is important to strive for dialogue and inclusiveness, not for confrontation and exclusion.
Hours earlier, US President Joe Biden had stressed during the general debate at the UN General Assembly that the US had no intention of starting a “new Cold War”. Although he did not name the People’s Republic directly, observers immediately assumed a reference to the tensions with China.
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The relaxation rhetoric of the heads of state of the two largest economies in the world was apparently intended to smooth the waves after UN Secretary General António Guterres warned the USA and China. They put confrontation over productive dialogue, Guterres reprimanded at the weekend.
China often preaches multilateralism, but critics accuse the country that its policy towards Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea speak a different language.
More: Von der Leyen calls on China and the USA to be more committed to the fight against climate change