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The View | From climate change to unemployment, blaming China won’t help the US solve its problems
- The solution to growing inequality in rich countries is neither freer trade nor protectionism, but retraining workers and social redistribution
- Globalisation’s social consequences can only be addressed by domestic policy initiatives
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Despite US President Joe Biden’s soaring words at COP26, his ambitious climate agenda has been stalled and pared down by one Democratic senator from West Virginia.
Even grimmer is the prospect that many of the modest climate proposals Biden manages to get through Congress may be reversed by a Republican president. For all the faults of an authoritarian state, China looks the most credible in terms of being able to deliver on its climate commitments.
Beyond its trade and technological suppression of China, does the United States seriously believe it can weaponise climate change to further slow China’s growth in this critical decade when the country is poised to surpass the US economically?
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Climate action, just like trade restrictions, can adversely affect China’s economy, as evident in its recent power shortages. Is any advanced economy prepared to pay such a high price?
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Chinese manufacturing thrown into disarray as country's electricity crisis rolls on
Chinese manufacturing thrown into disarray as country's electricity crisis rolls on
The US has ganged up with the European Union against China’s “dirty” steel. Biden called out Chinese President Xi Jinping’s failure to attend COP26 as a “big mistake”, while keeping silent on Australia, a top per capita carbon emitter, which refused to reduce its reliance on coal.
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