Within a week of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, his new climate envoy John Kerry established two clear conditions for a renewed relationship with China on climate change. First, the U.S. wanted climate to be treated as a “standalone” issue in the relationship, untethered to disagreements elsewhere. Second, Kerry insisted that China demonstrate its willingness to do more this decade to reduce emissions. In other words, the U.S. wanted to avoid cooperating simply for the sake of it —