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Shi Jiangtao

China has demonstrated a new line of thinking on international climate negotiations with a surprising rapprochement with the United States at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. 
 Despite Beijing attempting to keep a low profile, its virtual about-turn in its dealings with Washington at the Mexican beach resort has made it a talking point at a dreary meeting that is moving along at a snail's pace. 
The world's two biggest carbon emitters appear to have buried the hatchet over their climate discord, less than two months after clashing at talks in Tianjin . 
With memories of bitter squabbles between the two powers at last year's Copenhagen summit still fresh, analysts say the change comes as a surprise, with Beijing trying to avoid conflicts with the US and intense media scrutiny. 
The fiery exchanges between Beijing and Washington and the accusations and finger-pointing that attracted world attention over the past year have gone. 
A new sense of reconciliation is emerging instead, with lead negotiators from both countries highlighting the importance of their co-operation rather than blaming each other for the floundering talks. 
'Beijing has apparently started viewing China-US dynamics on climate issues under overarching diplomatic relations,' said Zhang Haibin , an expert on climate diplomacy at Peking University. 
Zhang said the change comes at a delicate time for bilateral ties, with President Hu Jintao  expected to visit the US next year amid a host of economic, trade and diplomatic frictions. Experts and environmentalists close to the negotiating process say Beijing's change  has come about as a result of a consensus reached quite recently between top leaders from both countries. 
'Clearly there has been some sort of understanding on the issue between political leaders in Beijing and Washington,' said one expert who has been heavily involved in the talks. 
Along with Washington, Beijing has been accused as the main culprit behind the Copenhagen debacle a year ago, when the leaders of nearly 200 nations failed to cut a new, binding deal on tackling global warming. 
Beijing's soaring carbon emissions and its resistance to mandatory cuts have also made it an easy target of criticism at the stalled climate talks. 
'It appears true that the government has redefined the role of the Chinese negotiating team in multilateral talks and mainland negotiators have been instructed by senior government leaders not to take a confrontational stance as it may hurt bilateral ties,' another expert said. 
In Copenhagen last year as well as in Tianjin in October, China basked in the limelight with an unprecedented display of great-power diplomacy, taking a leadership role in the stand-off between developing countries and their developed counterparts. 
Su Wei, China's combative chief negotiator, made a name for himself when he likened the US top climate envoy, Dr Todd Stern, to Zhubajie, a pig character featured in the Chinese classic Journey to the West. 
But his sense of humour did not go down to well with his US counterparts, who were reportedly annoyed and complained about his remarks. 
Analysts said the two countries had engaged in a flurry of intense consultations and dialogue on climate change between Tianjin and Cancun. 
Huang Huikang , the Foreign Ministry's special representative on climate change, confirmed that things had changed after the Tianjin talks. 
Bickering and disputes could only disrupt the talks and lead to confrontation and clashes, which were not in the interests of either country, he said. 
'It is a good thing to see positive changes result from joint efforts by both countries in expanding common ground, bridging differences and creating a favourable atmosphere for co-operation on climate issues,' Huang said. 
He said China had refrained from accusing the US of inaction and the US had toned down its criticism of China. 
China's top climate official, Xie Zhenhua , deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, revealed that his negotiation team had been instructed to avoid saying 'No' at the climate talks in order to present a positive and constructive image of China. 
Unlike other large emitters, such as the US, European Union, Brazil and India, China has not set up a pavilion at the main conference centre to showcase domestic efforts to cut emissions, even though it had one in Copenhagen last year. 
Greenpeace China climate campaigner Yang Ailun said Chinese negotiators had toed a careful line in taking sensitive questions on disputed climate issues, especially those regarding the US, such as mitigation targets and climate funds. 
China did not give any official briefings in the first week of the talks while the US, European Union, India and Brazil have given briefings on regular basis. 
Su, deputy head of China's delegation, has been unusually quiet since the start of the Cancun talks last week. 
'He is definitely different this time, and this is the nicest that I've seen Su Wei,' one foreign analyst said.
 Jake Schmidt,  international climate policy director at the US-based Natural Resources Defence Council,  also noted a significant change in the tone of Sino-US relations in Cancun. 
'In the first week in Copenhagen, you had [US deputy envoy] Jonathan Pershing and Su Wei doing counter-press conferences from almost the get go. 
'But in Cancun, Su has been very positive and forward-looking and there has been no finger-pointing or that sort of thing,' he said. 
Peking University scholar Zhang Haibin said China wanted to keep a low profile.
Even US climate envoy Stern has spoken positively about China-US co-operation on climate issues. 
'The US has an enormously important relationship with China and a very cordial relationship with China on this [climate] issue,' he said. 'We don't always see eye to eye on issues, but we always try to make progress on that as much as possible.' 
But Yang said some poorer nations had expressed concern about China's deliberately low profile.
'Many developing nations, especially those smaller ones, are worried about China's policy changes, which they say means the developing bloc has lost a strong, powerful voice.'



Calm front as China and US bury hatchet over climate discord