On December 7, the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco Wang Donghua attended and addressed the China-Oregon Climate Change and Sustainability Forum co-organized by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Fujian Provincial People's Government, the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tianjin Municipal People's Government, the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco and the Oregon-China Council. The full text is as follows:
Hon. Wang Xu, Vice Mayor of Tianjin Municipality
Hon. Guo Ningning, Vice Governor of Fujian Province
Hon. Lew Frederick, Oregon State Senator and all the legislators in attendance
Mr. Lan Jin, President of the Oregon-China Council and your colleagues
Dear guests, friends, ladies and gentlemen:
Good evening and good morning.
It is an honor for me to join you at the online Forum in discussing climate change, a major issue that bears on the well-being of our two peoples and the future of mankind. In 2021, parts of the US including Oregon were impacted by the worst ice storm in decades, record-high temperatures and raging wildfires. Torrential rains and typhoons this summer caused severe flooding in some parts of China. Frequent occurrence of extreme weathers has reminded us time again that climate crisis is real, and the international community must accelerate the pace of actions to combat climate change through cooperation. The forum is part of the efforts to implement the consensus reached by our two presidents to enhance the practical cooperation including on climate change, and also a part of the efforts that make the world we call home a better place to live in.
The Communist Party, the Government and the people of China attach great importance to addressing climate change. As a developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, China faces an arduous task of developing its economy and improving its people's livelihood. In spite of that, it rises to the challenges of climate change. Enshrined into the Charter of the CPC and the Constitution of China, ecological civilization has become the guiding principle of the Party and a national strategy of the country. President Xi Jinping has announced that China will strive to peak carbon emission before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, which means that China will achieve the world's highest reduction in carbon intensity in the shortest time in history. “Beautiful China” has become one of the major goals of building a great modern socialist country. Deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese people, the concept of green and low-carbon development has become a consensus of the entire society.
China does not only have the determination, but also has taken forceful actions and achieved remarkable results in response to climate change. It has cut its carbon intensity by 48.4% over the last 15 years, with 5.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions reduced, meeting its 2020 climate action targets ahead of schedule. It has registered the largest growth in forest resources and the largest area of artificial forestation in the world, becoming a major contributor to global greening and carbon sequestration. In 2020 alone, the area of its artificial forestation completed was 6.77 million hectares, equivalent to one quarter of the territory of Oregon. China boasts of the world's largest user of new and renewable energy, and leader in investment, installed capacity, power generation and patent number in the area of new and renewable energy. It has been the largest market of newly installed photovoltaic capacity for 8 years in a row, and its production and sales of new energy vehicles have topped the world for 6 consecutive years. In addition, it has launched the world's largest carbon trading market, and it is now building a “1+N” policy system to provide implementation plans and support measures for carbon peak and carbon neutrality in key areas and industries.
An old Chinese saying goes like this,“One can go fast, but together we can go farther.” China upholds the vision of building a human community with a shared future in promoting global climate governance. It has made proactive efforts to implement international conventions, and made great contribution to tackling global warming, promoting ecological restoration, and ensuring ecological security. In recent years, China has signed memorandums of understanding on climate change cooperation with 35 developing countries, and allocated about 1.1 billion RMB for South-South cooperation. This year, President Xi Jinping announced at several international conferences that China will strongly support the green and low-carbon development in developing countries and will develop no new coal-fueled power plants overseas, and that China will take the lead in allocating 1.5 billion RMB to set up the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries. China is now taking concrete actions to build synergy for global ecological governance and promote global sustainable development.
Friends,
As the world's largest developing country and the largest developed country, China and the US shoulder important responsibilities in addressing climate change. In the spirit of the phone conversations between our two Presidents, China and the US have had intensive dialogue and communication on climate change this year. During the COP26, China and the US issued the Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, in which both countries are committed to strengthening the implementation of the Paris Agreement by making continued efforts and by working with other countries, and to effectively addressing climate crisis by taking intensified climate actions on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities and in light of respective capabilities and circumstances of different countries. This Joint Declaration is an outcome of the candid exchanges and mutual understanding between our two countries, marking a new stage in China-US cooperation on climate change.
China-US relationship today has developed into one that is characterized by the broadest range of common interests, the widest scope of cooperation, and the highest level of interconnection. The importance of China-US relationship goes far beyond bilateral scope, and the two countries share common responsibilities in addressing almost all major issues concerning world peace and development. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, there are a thousand reasons to make China-US relationship a success, but not a single one to mess it up. The previous Administration, however, adopted a wrong China policy, plunging the relationship to the lowest level since the diplomatic ties. In defiance of the fact that cooperation has been the mainstream of China-US relationship, unfortunately, the current Administration considers China as the most serious competitor and defines the relationship more with competition and confrontation than with cooperation. Therefore more restrictions have been put in place based on such misperception, adding to the difficulties the relationship has confronted. More than 300 China bashing bills including the Eagle Act and the US Innovation and Competition Act have been introduced to this Congress. Those bills groundlessly play up the so-called China threat, deliberately prepare the US for zero-sum competition, decoupling and confrontation with China, and grossly interfere in the internal affairs of China. Such moves mentioned above will undoubtedly undermine the sound and stable development of China-US relations and further disrupt the cooperation in various areas including climate change.
At the virtual meeting with President Joe Biden, President Xi Jinping put forward three principles to follow in developing China-US relationship in the new era, namely mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. President Xi Jinping also highlighted four priority areas where China and the US should focus their efforts, including shouldering responsibilities of major countries and leading global response to outstanding issues, acting in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit to move forward exchanges at all levels and in all areas and generate more positive energy for China-US relationship, managing differences and sensitive issues in a constructive way to prevent the relationship from getting derailed or out of control, and strengthening coordination and cooperation on major international and regional hotspot issues to provide more public goods to the world. We are ready to work with the US to implement the consensus of our two Presidents and bring the relationship back to the right track of stable development at an early date.
Friends,
We have taken note with great pleasure of Oregon's determination and actions in response to challenges posed by climate change. Oregon passed the groundbreaking bill of 100% Clean Energy for All, which aimed to expand and accelerate the use of clean energy in the State. Congressman Blumenauer and Governor Brown discussed solutions to the climate crisis with world leaders at the Glasgow Summit. Congressman Blumenauer has also demonstrated leadership in the Congress in beefing up the efforts for the US to increase investment in tackling climate change. Governor Brown announced measures taken to reduce food waste and mitigate the negative impact of such waste on environment. We deeply appreciate and admire the actions Oregon has taken to address climate change.
Over the years, thanks to the joint efforts of the friendly organizations including the Oregon-China Council, China and Oregon have deepened their cooperation in response to climate change, and become important partners in tackling challenges of climate change. The US-China Sustainable Development Center established in Oregon serves as a platform for the two sides to promote the cooperation on scientific research in the area of environmental protection. As Sister-State/Province, Tianjin and Fujian have conducted exchanges, dialogues and practical cooperation with Oregon in the area of green and low-carbon development. The enterprises of both sides have also stepped up their efforts for cooperation as well. All this shows that response to global challenges like climate change has presented us with more opportunities for cooperation. The partnership between China and Oregon can be considered as a model of cooperation between China and the US.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The time is always right to do the right thing.” In the face of the climate crisis wreaking havoc and China-US relationship staying at a critical juncture, each and every one of us is obliged to spare no efforts to get the relationship right and turn the cooperation in response to climate change into real benefits. The Consulate General of China in SF is ready to make continued efforts to build bridges and create opportunities for practical cooperation between Tianjin, Fujian and Oregon, and support the efforts of both sides to break new ground in their cooperation in all areas including climate change. Let us work hand in hand to inject more positive energy into China-US relationship through cooperation at sub-national level, and improve the big environment of China-US relationship through cooperation on climate change, in order to deliver more benefits to the people of our two countries and to the rest of the world.
Before concluding, I wish you better health and greater success.
Merry Christmas! And a very Happy New Year!
Thank you all.