13
Rain check
After torrential rain swept across British Columbia, floodwaters submerged houses and a portion
of the Trans-Canada Highway in the town of Abbotsford on Nov. 16. The record-breaking deluge
forced thousands to leave their homes and farms; landslides trapped hundreds on highways. One
person was confirmed dead as of Nov. 18; authorities expected the toll to rise as Canadian armed
forces deployed to help with evacuation efforts. The province’s premier has declared a state of
emergency, and attributed the catastrophic storm to the climate crisis.
THE BULLETIN
Climate diplomacy brings U.S. and China closer together
The firsT summiT beTween u.s.
President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping
showed that the recent climate-change
talks could sprout green shoots in other
parts of their relationship. The Nov. 15
meeting, which took place via video chat,
came less than a week after Beijing and
Washington made a surprise announce-
ment at COP26 that they would work to-
gether on curbing methane emissions and
other climate- related initiatives.
OLD FRIENDS The tone of the meeting was
cordial; Xi greeted the U.S. President as his
“old friend.” Biden and Xi have spent con-
siderable time together, including eating at
a noodle shop in Beijing in 2011, when both
were Vice Presidents. Still, Biden raised
concerns about human- rights abuses in
Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong—and about
China’s “unfair trade and economic poli-
cies.” Xi, meanwhile, warned against slip-
ping into a “new Cold War,” and said that
U.S. was “playing with fire” with its sup-
port for Taiwan.
TONE SHIFT Even without clear break-
throughs, experts believe the summit may
still help reset relations. Xi hasn’t left China
since the start of the pandemic; U.S. offi-
cials say that the meeting gave the leaders a
chance to engage in a way they hadn’t been
able to before. “Rather than substance,
the key takeaway was tone,” says Andrew
Mertha, director of the China Global Re-
search Center at Johns Hopkins University’s
School of Advanced International Studies.
DIVISIONS REMAIN Still, cooperating on cli-
mate change doesn’t mean that China and
the U.S. will change their approaches to
the issues dividing them. Biden has dialed
down the anti- China rhetoric, but he hasn’t
necessarily softened hard-line policies. “We
previously liked to think that this was a
Donald Trump problem, but it’s quite clear
that it’s not specific to the Trump Adminis-
tration,” says Steve Tsang, director of SOAS
China Institute at the University of London.
“It’s structural.” —AmY GuniA, with report-
ing by briAn benneTT
NEWS TICKER
deaths rose 28.5% in
the 12-month period
after April 2020,
young people
peacefully protesting
police brutality
new
guidelines for trans
athletes
JONATHAN HAYWARD—THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP
