BEIJING (AP) -- China stands ready to work with Washington to reduce global warming as long as its political demands are met, the country's vice president told US climate chief John Kerry on Wednesday.
China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted Vice President Han Zheng as saying that Kerry said combating climate change is "an important aspect of China-US cooperation", but on mutual respect. He said this should be done "on the basis of US engagement on key issues affecting both sides, with full commitment and exchange of ideas." During a visit this week, Kerry told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi that President Joe Biden's administration is "very determined" to stabilize relations between the world's two largest economies as it seeks to resume high-level contacts. Relations between the two countries are at an all-time low amid disagreements over tariffs, access to technology, human rights, China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, and threats to Taiwan's autonomy. China cut ties with the Biden administration last August over a range of issues including climate change, showing its displeasure over then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. China says the island will be taken as its territory by force if necessary, threatening the United States with a major conflict in a region vital to the global economy. Communications have been slowly restored, and China continues to refuse to resume dialogue between the People's Liberation Army, the party's military wing, and the US Department of Defense. Kerry is the third senior Biden administration official in recent weeks to travel to China to meet with his counterparts, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. No senior Chinese officials have visited the United States.
Kerry had earlier paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Li Qiang, a second-level party official, who told him that China and the United States should work more closely together on the "very important challenge" of global warming.
Kerry responded: "It's amazing that we're working and showing the rest of the world how we can work together and address this problem so quickly."
No meeting with China's supreme leader, Xi Jinping, was announced, and Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Gang did not appear in public for three weeks. There was no immediate comment on Monday's meeting between Kerry and his counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, as part of the first high-level climate talks between officials of the world's two biggest polluters after a hiatus of nearly a year.
Like the USA and Europe, northern China experienced record temperatures during Kerry's visit, threatening crops and prompting cities to open Cold War-era shelters to help residents beat the heat.