Chinese president Xi Jinping speaks via a video link during the annual gathering in New York City for the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 2021. Xi pledged that China would stop funding for overseas coal plants, the last major power to do so. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
HONG KONG – The planet is heating up — and so are global geopolitics. With less than two months until the crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the United States and China must commit to cooperate on the existential challenge global warming represents. But bilateral relations remain burdened by mistrust, antagonism, and even warmongering.
Technically, the U.S. and China are both willing to cooperate on climate change. But China wants to do so only in a broader context of constructive engagement. The U.S., by contrast, wants “climate cooperation à la carte,” so that it can maintain a policy of containment and competition in virtually every other arena.
This mentality was on display last week, with the announcement of the so-called AUKUS security alliance. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have now agreed to share advanced — and highly sensitive — technology with Australia, and to supply it with nuclear-powered submarines. The goal of the a
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
