Xi Jinping, China, to chair a US climate summit on Thursday

BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech on Thursday via a video conference at a global climate summit for leaders organized by US President Joe Biden, state media said on Wednesday.

Many expected the leaders of the world’s two largest economies – and the largest carbon polluters – to have their first meeting on the side of the summit as tensions simmered between the two countries. Since taking office in January, Biden has called China the “most serious competitor” to the United States as it maintains former President Donald Trump’s tough stance on Beijing.

Xi and Biden spoke by telephone in February, just before China’s Spring Festival.

The reduction in carbon emissions is one of the few areas where China and the US have said they can work together, and joins Xi’s announcement that the Asian country intends to reach the highest carbon emissions by 2030.

Over the weekend, the US and China jointly issued a broad statement on how the two countries would work together to tackle the climate crisis.

The statement follows two days of talks in Shanghai between US special envoy for climate change John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua.

Xi said during the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday that China will support ‘green’ development, especially regarding the Belt and Road Initiative. Critics say the infrastructure development program is part of Beijing’s effort to increase its influence among less developed countries in the region.

Xi did not name the US in his speech, but said that large countries must act responsibly and that China does not want to seek hegemony or an ‘sphere of influence’.

The announcement Wednesday that Xi will attend the climate summit comes more than three weeks since Biden invited 40 world leaders to attend the two-day meeting for Thursday and Friday.