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US attacks China’s environmental record as Xi Jinping vows to reduce carbon footprint
- The US State Department’s latest broadside against Beijing follows a pledge by Xi to the United Nations General Assembly to reduce China’s carbon footprint
- The ‘fact sheet’ talks about China’s greenhouse gas emissions, wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing and a host of other alleged violations
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The US government on Friday amplified attacks against China on the environmental front with a comprehensive statement about its alleged abuses.
Billed as a “fact sheet” on China’s greenhouse gas emissions, wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing and a host of other alleged violations, the US State Department’s latest broadside against Beijing follows a pledge by Xi Jinping to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this week to drastically reduce its carbon footprint.
“While the Chinese people have suffered the worst environmental impacts of its actions, Beijing also threatens the global economy and global health by unsustainably exploiting natural resources and exporting its wilful disregard for the environment through its One Belt One Road initiative,” the document said.
“Tragically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) represses civil society and a free press, slowing changes that would benefit its citizens and people all over the world,” it said.
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China’s industrial heartland ‘sacrificed’ in war on pollution
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US President Donald Trump, one of the leading critics among world leaders of efforts to curtail greenhouse gases, spent much of his UNGA address this week slamming Beijing’s environmental record, accusing China of dumping “millions and millions of tons” of trash into the oceans, overfishing and polluting the world’s air.
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