Tag: International Relations

Qin Gang, China’s Foreign Minister, Is Replaced

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Mr. Qin, 57, was appointed China’s ambassador to Washington in July 2021, and 17 months later was promoted to foreign minister, singling him out as a trusted protégé of Mr. Xi. Earlier, Mr. Qin had served as a foreign ministry spokesman, a diplomat in London and as a protocol officer, a job that brought him close to Mr. Xi during foreign visits. Mr. Qin graduated from the University of International Relations, a school in Beijing linked to China’s security service, and worked as an assistant in the Beijing bureau of…

Xi Rejects Pressure on China to Do More to Address Climate Change

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During his visit to China this week, John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, pressed the hope that the two powers could work together on the urgent problem of global warming despite their intensifying rivalry on other fronts. But Chinese officials made clear that even as they were willing to restart long-stalled climate talks with the United States, the two countries’ tense overall relationship could constrain cooperation. And China’s leader, Xi Jinping, asserted that his government would pursue its goals to phase out carbon dioxide pollution at its own pace and…

Kissinger Makes Surprise Visit to China, Meets Defense Minister

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Henry A. Kissinger, the 100-year-old former secretary of state who has pushed the United States to take a more conciliatory approach to China, has made a surprise visit to Beijing, meeting with China’s defense minister. The previously unannounced trip by Mr. Kissinger, who more than 50 years ago helped pave the way for diplomatic ties between the United States and China during President Richard M. Nixon’s administration, coincided with a string of visits by currently serving American officials to China. On Tuesday, the day that Mr. Kissinger met with Li…

Where Is Qin Gang, China’s Foreign Minister? Beijing Won’t Say.

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After China’s leader, Xi Jinping, catapulted Qin Gang into the post of foreign minister in December, Mr. Qin set a frantic pace, meeting dozens of foreign officials as he pressed Beijing’s agenda in a divided, war-stricken world. Then Mr. Qin went silent. As of Monday, he had not made a public appearance in three weeks. His last reported engagements were on June 25, when he held talks with diplomats from Vietnam, Russia and Sri Lanka. He was recently scheduled to meet the foreign policy chief of the European Union in…

China’s Economy is Slowing, Posing a Challenge for Global Growth

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China’s high-quality growth challenge When China finally lifted Covid restrictions last year, policymakers and companies hoped that it would help lift the global economy out of its post-pandemic doldrums. But data released on Monday shows that the hoped-for recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy still hasn’t materialized, raising wider questions about global growth, the implications for international business and China’s dealings with the outside world. Gross domestic product grew just 0.8 percent in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year, according to official statistics, as…

One Reason China Is Willing to Engage Again: Its Troubled Economy

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Three months ago it appeared that China’s economy was on track to recover relatively quickly after being closed off to the world during the pandemic. Consumers were spending again. Exports picked up. Even China’s beleaguered housing market gave hints it was stabilizing. That is no longer the case. Official data released Monday revealed that the annual pace of growth in China’s economy tumbled to just a little over 3 percent in the spring, well below the government’s target. Now the faltering economy appears to have helped prompt a shift in…

Kerry Says U.S. and China Must Set Aside Politics to Tackle Climate Change

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The United States and China are running out of time to avert a harrowing future brought on by global warming, John Kerry, President Biden’s envoy for climate change, warned on Monday at the resumption of talks with Beijing that had stalled for nearly a year amid geopolitical tensions. Mr. Kerry challenged the Chinese government to curb the rapid expansion of its fleet of coal-fired power plants and said the rest of the world is looking to the two economic powers and major polluters to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions from…

Canadian Politicians Who Criticize China Become Its Targets

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The polls predicted a re-election victory, maybe even a landslide. But a couple of weeks before the vote, Kenny Chiu, a member of Canada’s Parliament and a critic of China’s human rights record, was panicking. Something had flipped among the ethnic Chinese voters in his British Columbia district. “Initially, they were supportive,” he said. “And all of a sudden, they just vanished, vaporized, disappeared.” Longtime supporters originally from mainland China were not returning his calls. Volunteers reported icy greetings at formerly friendly homes. Chinese-language news outlets stopped covering him. And…

As U.S. and China Resume Climate Talks, Here’s Where Things Stand

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But she added, “The question is whether it is in a position to talk about phasing coal out faster.” Despite its enormous economy and emissions, China tries to position itself as a defender of the developing world. For nearly two decades, China has been the biggest national emitter, but its average pollution per person is lower than in most wealthy countries, and Beijing has long maintained that those nations should shoulder a greater burden in cutting greenhouse gases and financing global action. Mr. Xie and other officials are likely to…

‘As Long as It Takes’: Biden Adds to Talk of a New Cold War

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President Biden and his national security team have contended since he took office that all the easy, tempting comparisons between this era and the Cold War are misleading, a vast oversimplification of a complex geopolitical moment. The differences are, indeed, stark: The United States never had the kind of technological and financial interdependence with its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, that so complicates the increasingly bitter and dangerous downward spiral in the relationship with China. And Mr. Biden’s advisers often argue that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes,…