On May 29, 2024, the China-U.S. High-level Event on Subnational Climate Action was held in California. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng was invited to deliver remarks.

Ambassador Xie said that China-U.S. cooperation is indispensable to global climate governance. As the largest developing and developed countries, China and the United States have respective strength in energy transition and circular economy. We have every reason to draw on each other and complement one another, and our climate cooperation enjoys huge potential and bright prospects. 

Ambassador Xie pointed out that over the past decade and more, China-U.S. climate cooperation has gone through ups and downs. We worked closely to bring the international community together to adopt the milestone Paris Agreement. Later, though, such cooperation was stalled for reasons known to all. In recent years, climate cooperation has again resumed. If we can draw any inspiration from this, it is that China-U.S. climate cooperation is inseparable from the overall China-U.S. relationship. It certainly will not work if one asks for dialogue and cooperation but keeps damaging the other side’s interests at the same time, or tries to build roads on one hand but keeps digging holes on the other.