…do you still get to call yourself a developing country?

Three stories caught my eye today. The first came from the NY Times, where Jim Yardley reported that China believes richer countries should take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.

Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said China was willing to contribute to an international effort to combat global warming but placed the primary responsibility on richer, developed nations that have been polluting for much longer.

“It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per capita emissions,” she said, adding that developed countries have responsibilities for global warming “that cannot be shirked.”

Ms. Jiang’s comments, combined with another briefing on Tuesday by the country’s leading climate expert, represented China’s first official response to a landmark report issued last week by a United Nations panel of scientists that declared global warming is “unequivocal” and warned that immediate action must be taken to prevent harmful consequences.

China is the world’s second largest emitter of the greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, trailing only the United States. Last November, the International Energy Agency in Paris predicted that China would pass the United States in emissions of carbon dioxide in 2009. China had been expected to surpass the United States as late as 2020, but its soaring consumption of coal has rapidly increased the country’s emissions.

This is an old debate, and I would have just added it to the clip file and moved on, except that my next few clicks put me on this story, at the top of IHT’s most emailed list, about China’s new front line multi-role fighter jet. (The headline calls it a “superpower” fighter. Interesting word choice.)

Along with China’s successful test of an anti-satellite missile on Jan. 11, the new fighter is further evidence that double-digit increases in defense spending over much of the last 15 years are being converted into sharply increased firepower for the People’s Liberation Army.

The introduction of modern aircraft, missiles, submarines and warships over the past decade, along with the increased professionalism of its service personnel, means that China is rapidly gaining the military muscle to match its growing economic clout.

And Beijing is aiming higher still. Tim Johnson blogged yesterday about China’s rumored plans to mine the surface of the moon, which is high in Helium-3. He cites a People’s Daily op-ed that talks up such an idea, saying the isotope could “meet the energy demand of the humankind for close to 10,000 years.”

Remember when people in America used to say, “If they can put a man on the moon…” as a catch-all for when nothing worked?

How do you say that in Chinese?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 3:53 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.