Presidential special envoy for climate John Kerry says tensions between the United States and China are hurting talks he has been holding on climate.
Kerry, who holds a cabinet position in the Biden administration — which required Senate confirmation — and has authority over energy and climate policy in the executive branch, told Axios that tensions between the two counties are hurting talks.
Kerry told Axios at CERAWeek:
Unfortunately, in the past year … happened what should not have happened, namely that the climate issue has become mixed up with all the other tensions that exist between our countries. And so they’ve backed off a little bit, expressing the feeling that we’re just beating them up and beating them up.
The two countries issued a joint statement at the end of 2021 on aggressive measures against emissions. Axios noted that Kerry also had a “productive working relationship” with his Chinese counterpart dating back to the Obama administration (when Biden was also vice president). However, Kerry last spoke to his Chinese counterpart about a month ago, but noted that the person had recently been ill.
Last month it was reported that he had held climate talks with his Chinese counterpart, which House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) recently decided to investigate, as Kerry has not released details of his meetings.
Comer asked for some transparency to understand Kerry’s activities while on the National Security Council and Biden’s cabinet. Kerry’s position, which did not exist before President Joe Biden appointed him, has been placed with the State Department with an estimated annual budget of $13.9 million and a staff of 45, according to Fox News.
As Kerry noted, tensions between China and the US seem to have increased over the past year, particularly in the previous month.
In early February, the US military shot down a Chinese balloon believed to be a surveillance aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Carolina. Despite US officials claiming it was a spy balloon with surveillance capabilities, China claims it was just a weather balloon off course.
In addition, China seemed to be bothered by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) making plans to visit Taiwan; however, the communist country was also angered when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited the island nation last year, despite multiple warnings.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write it down jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.