Xi's announcement that China is aiming for max CO2 < 2030 and neutrality by 2060 may turn out to be a world historic turning point.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/25/xi-china-climate-change-saved-the-world%E2%80%A8/
How does it sit alongside other recent Beijing moves? E.g. Hong Kong...
A short thread ...

I dont think we know enough about what is going on inside China's leadership. I certainly dont. But ... as I hinted in @ForeignPolicy piece, you "can" read climate move as a power move:
1. in setting agenda
2. marginalizing US
3. wrong-footing EU which is threatening to "pivot"

4. leveraging Germany, in particular.
5. global green energy industrial leadership.
6. internally Xi is defining a new economic policy agenda.

For all of these reasons, there may be more, It seems to me that you could see ....

... Xi's bold climate policy announcement as part of a piece with moves on Hong Kong. It is an expression of confident power. A consolidation move (though one with risks). A perfect flanking maneuver with regard to EU and global opinion.

I didn't venture this "intentionalist" power political reading of Xi's climate move even more loudly in the @ForeignPolicy piece because folks like @sinocism @jordanschnyc @KaiserKuo know far better than me. And because ...

Simple intentionalist readings of CCP policy easily end up impaled on cynical/power political/realism v. idealism/ideology fork, which I find profoundly unilluminating. I'm scarred by my start in 3rd Reich historiography.

My guess, equally unfounded in deep inside knowledge, would be that climate problem is "good fit" for CCP leadership worldview:
a. China acts on science and US doesnt
b. China has world historic importance.
c. This is moment to define 2nd century of CCP.
Whats not to like?