French President Emmanuel Macron has assumed the mantle as a global leader against climate change. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s move towards joining the Chinese belt and road initiative is slated to benefit his country, while Chinese dealings with a US Senator has benefited the country.
Chinese political acumen
Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) hosted a Chinese delegation overseeing Tibet around the same time that Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan President, visted Washington- thereby undercutting their visit, writes Josh Rogin in the Washington Post.
“The episode illustrated China’s growing practice of enlisting Western politicians to blunt criticism of the regime — and also its determination to haunt its opponents wherever they travel. “Everywhere I go, I’m followed by a high-level Chinese delegation” denying human rights abuses in Tibet, Sangay told me, adding that Chinese officials pressure governments across the world not to meet with him.”
“Daines’s office couldn’t produce any record that he, either in China or Washington, publicly raised the fact that the Chinese government is perpetrating brutal, systematic repression in Tibet, including attempted cultural genocide, environmental destruction, mass surveillance, mass incarceration and severe denial of freedoms for Tibetans,” Rogin writes.
“In Washington, political and policy leaders are just waking up to the scope and scale of China’s efforts to interfere. But if the Chinese government can claim U.S. lawmakers as defenders of its repression in Tibet, it’s clear the problem is much worse than we realize.”
Japan’s is joining China on the road
“Japan’s reluctance to join China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” was always puzzling,” editorializes the South China Morning Post. “Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s expressed intention to cooperate is welcome. The United States and India would also do well to follow his lead.”
Abe’s remarks on cooperating with China indicate that it is well within Japenese interests to work with its neighbours, as opposed to the informal “Quad”, a group consisting of Japan, the US, India and Australia working to counter growing Chinese influence.
“Abe’s offer to support the trade initiative should be formalised and furthered through also joining the China-hosted Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Such projects are grounded in globalisation and aimed at interconnected growth and shared prosperity, which will also build trust and understanding. The benefits of such cooperation cannot be underestimated.”
A new summit for the Paris Deal
Emmanuel Macron’s recent announcements on the Paris Deal are a much needed breath of fresh air, but a lot more work needs to be done to achieve actual progress, writes The Economist.
“Since his election to the French presidency seven months ago, green activists have placed their hopes in Mr Macron as a bulwark against his carbon-cuddling American counterpart, Donald Trump.”
“The flurry of announcements, and the pomp, were intended to breathe new life into the Paris deal. America’s planned departure did not strike it a mortal blow, as some greens feared it would. It may even have nudged the last two holdouts, Nicaragua and Syria, to sign up in November. But the pledges made so far are inadequate, and many are conditional on other countries keeping their side of the bargain. Fresh momentum is sorely needed.”
“But for all the importance of subnational green efforts, the UN climate process is still essential. It is the only mechanism available for chivvying stragglers to do more. And if global warming is to be kept within reasonable bounds, action will be needed not just by the most committed, but also from those currently doing little or nothing.”