Xi& #39;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">https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/2... 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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t venture this "intentionalist" power political reading of Xi& #39;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& #39;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?
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