664 { China’s Quest
Vice Minister He continued to raise procedural objections, backed up by
developing-country representatives. China, apparently, came to the confer-
ence not to partner with the United States but to rally the Third World to de-
feat the attempts by the “rich countries” to hobble Third World development.
In his main speech the next day, Wen Jiabiao called for voluntary targets only.
In his speech following Wen, President Obama rejected the idea that devel-
oping countries’ emissions promises did not need to be verifiable, adding “I
don’t know how you can have an international agreement where we are not
sharing information and ensuring we are meeting our commitments. That
doesn’t make sense. It would be a hollow victory.”^50
Wen Jiabao reportedly was furious at what he saw as Obama’s insinua-
tion that China might be dishonest. Wen returned to his hotel, skipping an-
other leaders’ meeting, and sending even lower-level Chinese representatives
to subsequent sessions. At a mid-afternoon US-PRC session, Obama and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton found themselves sitting across from three
low-level Chinese officials. At one point in the session one of the Chinese rep-
resentatives lectured Obama on what the United States needed to do, wagging
his finger at Obama to stress his point. Obama took this as a deliberate slight.
“It would be nice to negotiate with someone who can make political deci-
sions,” Obama said. Obama then went looking for Wen Jiabao and found him
in a session with leaders of India, Brazil, and South Africa. Obama insisted
on joining the session, saying he did not want them negotiating in secret.
The final document issuing from the Copenhagen conference asserted that
“climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time” and stated that
“deep cuts” in emissions were required. All specific numeric goals and all
mandatory actions were, however, deleted.
In sum, China played a major and assertive role at the Copenhagen
conference—possibly one of its most influential roles ever at a UN confer-
ence. But Beijing used its influence not in cooperation with the United States,
but to block actions by the Western nations that Beijing deemed antithet-
ical to China’s interest in unrestricted and rapid industrialization. Seen from
the perspective of Washington, this episode suggested China would use its
growing power not as a partner of the United States to uphold a common
global order, but to pursue its own narrow national interests. The next episode
on the Korean peninsula would make the same point even more forcefully.Beijing Aligns with North Korea and against the United StatesIn March 2010, a medium-sized South Korean warship operating in dis-
puted waters off the west coast of Korea exploded, broke in half, and quickly
sank, killing forty-six South Korean seamen. The ship, named the Cheonan,
was recovered from the sea floor in mid-April, along with the remains of an