Over 40 “progressive” groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden and lawmakers on Wednesday urging them to prioritize cooperation with China on climate change and curb its “confrontational approach,” Politico reports.
“While we are encouraged by stated commitments from the United States and China to work together and with other countries to enact urgent climate policies, we are deeply troubled by the growing Cold War mentality driving the United States’ approach to China — an antagonistic posture that risks undermining much-needed climate cooperation,” says the letter, which was written by groups including the Sunrise Movement, which devised the environmental action program known as the “Green New Deal.” The letter then calls to “eschew the dominant antagonistic approach to U.S.-China relations and instead prioritize multilateralism, diplomacy, and cooperation with China to address the existential threat that is the climate crisis.”
Making no reference to a single concern of the United States or international community regarding Beijing, the letter goes on to claim that criticisms of China were being used to bolster “racist, right-wing movements in the United States.” Such criticism, “progressives” believe, “fuels violence against people of East and Southeast Asian descent, paves the way for higher U.S. military spending, and, critically, does nothing to actually support the wellbeing of everyday people in either China or the United States.”
The letter fails to mention China’s ongoing gross human rights abuses, which includes the crackdown on Hong Kong and forced detention of more than one million Uyghur Muslims — their “wellbeing” doesn’t seem to be concerning for the signatories.
The actions of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Uyghurs violated every single provision in the UN’s Genocide Convention, according to an independent report released earlier this year and compiled by more than 50 global experts specializing in international law, genocide, and the China region. Chinese government policies have included the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in state-sponsored internment camps, forced labor, torture, rape, suppression of Uyghur religious practices, political indoctrination, severe ill treatment, forced sterilization, forced contraception, and forced abortion.
In the United States, the “progressives” unleash all their ferocity on anyone who dares use an incorrect pronoun when addressing a “representative” of one of the 112 “genders,” or tries to ban men competing against women in sports, or boots mentally challenged men out of women’s bathrooms, or fails to make a child wear a mask, or (say) does a “burnout” on LGBTQ intersection. But an “inconvenience” such as genocide may, apparently, be excused in the name of “climate change.”
There are two women’s groups that signed the letter — Wall of Women and Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) — that remain silent on the barbaric treatment of Uyghur women and girls. CatholicNetwork US, which is also among the signatories, could also protest against ungodly torture, but no — “reduce the emissions” and “drop the confrontation.”
Another call that the activists make is that the United States, as the biggest polluter (with the release of carbon dioxide defined as pollution), should not just do its “fair share in climate action” (meaning, polluting “less”), but should also scale up international climate finance for developing countries — “truly leading by example.” On the other hand, China’s rapidly increasing emissions despite the promises of Secretary Xi Jinping, are ignored in the letter, which demands to stop “scapegoating” and “demonizing” China “to avoid global climate commitments.”
U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have grown hawkish on China in recent years as a result of Beijing’s shocking abuses, especially in the wake of Beijing’s refusal to allow investigators into Wuhan to track down the origin of COVID-19.
The Trump administration took a hard-line approach to China’s treatment of the Uighurs, banning all cotton and tomato products made in the Xinjiang region over the use of forced labor. President Donald Trump also slapped visa restrictions and financial sanctions on Communist Party officials over the “horrific abuses” involving the Uighurs.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted the CCP for carrying out genocide and said it was the “crime of the century.”
Prior to being confirmed as Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken lauded the Trump administration’s handling of China and said the Biden White House would continue to take a “tougher approach to China.”
“President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China. I disagree very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s actually helpful to our foreign policy,” Blinken told senators during his Senate confirmation hearing.
The Politico article also notes that the Biden administration has long claimed it could silo its climate cooperation and geopolitical competition with China, and cited John Kerry, the president’s special envoy for climate change, who said in January, “Obviously we have serious differences with China…. Those issues [human rights abuses] will never be traded for anything that has to do with climate. That’s not going to happen.” As evidence, the administration later pointed to China’s participation during April’s U.S.-led climate summit, where Beijing vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce coal consumption.
The “progressives” were not satisfied, as they regard the broader U.S.-China spat as interfering with their effort to address the “climate crisis.” In June, for example, climate-alarmists were upset that the United States banned the import of solar-panel material from a Chinese company over forced labor allegations.
