John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua are seen as uniquely capable of getting the U.S. and China to cooperate on climate change. But when it comes to the world’s two biggest emitters, a rivalry might be just as useful.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
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Xie Zhenhua was supposed to retire long ago, but every time the Chinese bureaucrat tried to leave government service, something blocked his exit. In 2015, he tried to step down as China’s lead climate negotiator before the Paris Climate Change Conference, but he was reinstated just a few months later. Given his impressive career helping shape China’s environmental policy, he was seen as crucial to reaching a deal. So, the pudgy, bespectacled Tianjin native went to work as China’s top climate official, and the relationship he cultivated with Todd Stern, the lead U.S. negotiator in Paris, played a key role in making the agreement a reality.
After Paris, Xie once again thought he was done. He took an academic gig running an environmental institute at his alma mater, Tsinghua University, hoping to influence climate policy from the sidelines. But Beijing pulled him back into the action.
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