White House climate czar John Kerry has revealed China invited him to visit in the “near term” to discuss climate change.
President Biden gave the go-ahead for Kerry to sit down with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua, but an exact timeline has not yet been nailed down and other details need to be worked out, Kerry told Reuters Wednesday.
“China has invited me to visit in the near term to be able to meet with him [Xie] to be able to work on work that we’ve been doing for several years, which is trying to find the pathway forward to be able to cooperate in ways that are beneficial to the world,” Kerry said. “And hopefully, we’ll be able to do that.”
The invite comes as Republicans have intensified scrutiny of Kerry’s dealings with Beijing.
Last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) demanded answers about Kerry’s work with China, marking the fourth time the panel sought that information from the former Massachusetts senator since last year.
“John Kerry continues to negotiate deals with foreign governments, including the Chinese Communist Party, that potentially undermine the United States’ interests and the Biden administration has refused to respond to Committee requests for information on Kerry’s powerful, unchecked position,” Comer’s office said in a statement last month.
Comer gave Secretary of State Antony Blinken until May 9 to meet his demands for documents, emphasizing it would be the “final time” the panel will seek voluntary cooperation.
In May 2022, Kerry told the Associated Press that the US and China were nearing an agreement to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. More recently, he told Yahoo that Biden had “empowered me to reach out to China and work with China, which we have done for two years, and with some effect.”
Tensions have simmered between the two global superpowers in recent months. Earlier this year, lawmakers were outraged over a spy balloon that floated across US airspace, including around sensitive military outposts.
Blinken scrapped plans to visit China in response to the balloon incursion, though he indicated on Wednesday that he is seeking to reschedule that trip later this year.
Beijing briefly halted discussions with Washington on climate change in protest of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) trip to Taiwan in August of last year.
On Wednesday, Kerry stressed to Reuters that his approach to China is not about “pointing fingers.”
“This has to be cooperative, notwithstanding other differences that do exist,” Kerry told the outlet. “The two biggest economies, biggest contributors to that problem need to be able to come together and work to try to help resolve it.”
Last year, China accounted for roughly 32% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, followed by the US at 14%, India at 8%, and the European Union at 8%, according to the Global Carbon Project.