U.S. President Joe Biden shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, November 14, 2022, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Credit: Alex Brandon via AP Photos
The Biden administration has sold its key policies on climate change with a singular premise — that the U.S. needs to “outcompete China.” This has sparked long overdue investments at home, but zero-sum competition — where each side measures success by their position relative to the other — holds potentially disastrous consequences for the climate.
The planned resumption of dialogues on climate between the two countries following the first in-person meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi this week is a positive sign. And with both sides eliciting an open embrace of industrial policy, leaders in Washington may find elusive common ground with Beijing to move forward on climate issues.
A new model for U.S.-China engagement on climate should look to facilitate a more enlightened form of competition in low-carbon technologies. Both sides' priority should be to minimize the material harm caused by tariffs and other bilateral tensions on emissions reduction efforts
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Increasingly, Democrats and Republicans believe that climate change and China pose a single interconnected challenge. As a result — and for the first time ever — a window is opening for bipartisan cooperation on climate policy. Historically progressive ideas like a 'carbon border adjustment mechanism' now have conservative champions, for instance. But with Washington's main focus on the Warming War with China, can it still save the planet?
A look at China’s electricity grid: how it works, who foots the bill, and how its structure leads to power crunches and expensive prices despite the relative abundance of energy in China.
The academic talks about the changing understanding of Leninist regimes; common misperceptions of the post-Mao era; and what the collapse of the Soviet Union means for China today.
