US President Joe Biden expressed his disappointment over China’s absence from the G20 summit while speaking at the closing press conference on Tuesday.
Biden at the press conference lashed out at China saying, “It was a big mistake for China’s President Xi Jinping not to attend COP26. The rest of the world will look to China and ask what value-added are they providing and they have lost the ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP.”
#WATCH: It’s been a big mistake. The world will look to China & say what value-added they provided. They’ve lost the ability to influence people… here at COP. Same way I would argue with regard to Russia: POTUS on China, Russia not attending G20 & COP26
— ANI (@ANI) November 2, 2021
(Source: White House) pic.twitter.com/AUrLTTn1Wp
“The fact that China is trying to assert, understandably, a new role in the world as a world leader — not showing up, come on,” Biden exclaimed accusing Xi Jinping of walking away from global leadership.
Not just Beijing, but Biden even criticized Russia for skipping the meet. “His tundra is burning — literally, the tundra is burning. He has serious, serious climate problems, and he is mum on willingness to do anything,” Biden remarked while speaking about Russia.
“It’s just a gigantic issue. And they walked away,” concluded the US President.
China retaliates- says US in no position to blame
Biden’s comments have not gone down well with China. Beijing issued a clarification on Tuesday saying that their President was not given an opportunity to deliver a video address and hence had sent a written response instead.
Reacting to Biden’s criticism, China in its state-sponsored daily newspaper Global Times alleged that by badmouthing China and Russia, the US has ‘undermined the achievements of the G20 and cast a shadow on the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.’
Furthering their counter-attack, China further reminded the US of its poor performance in dealing with climate change. “The US’ biggest problem on climate change is the inconsistency of its words and deeds. There is no plan for how the Biden administration’s emissions reduction commitments will be promoted in the US,” China lashed out in its editorial report.
Not just the US, China also lamented against friend-turned-foe, Australia. “Australia is a developed country, as well as a close ally of the US. But as Australia is the leading coal exporting country, it has been holding a twisted attitude toward climate action,” the report read further.
Interestingly, Xi Jinping has not travelled outside of China since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. China’s absence from the climate summit came as a rude shock as the country is being held responsible for being the world’s largest emitter of carbon emissions responsible for climate change.
We reported earlier on the Bloomberg report that revealed ‘China is contributing to the increase of toxins in the air more than any country across the globe.’
Even as China’s President Xi Jinping has promised to zero out emissions by 2060, a study published by Rhodium Group in 2019 suggests that the Chinese companies emit greenhouse gases more than all developed companies combined.
