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China appears to have fanned the flames of Pacific Islander anger over Australia’s failure to provide heaps of extra money embrace a more pro-active approach to helping Pacific Islanders prepare for global warming.
Beijing suggests Australia reflect on how it treats Pacific neighbours after climate change fallout
Beijing has suggested Australia reflect on how it engages its Pacific neighbours after Fiji’s Prime Minister accused Scott Morrison of being “insulting and condescending” at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu.
Key points:
- Pacific leaders were unhappy with Australia’s stance on climate change at last week’s forum
- China’s Foreign Ministry accused Australia of being condescending and insulting
- China insists its aid comes with no strings attached
After hours of negotiations, Pacific leaders failed to reach agreement on climate change action, and instead issued a watered-down communique after Australia refused to endorse statements calling for a ban on new coal mines and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The discussions on climate change reduced the Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva to tears while other Pacific leaders also expressed their disappointment.
Fiji’s PM Frank Bainimarama told The Guardian that when Mr Morrison was “[backed] into a corner by the leaders” at the forum, he started talking about how much money Australia had been giving to the Pacific — a move Mr Bainimarama described as “very insulting, very condescending.”
In response to Mr Bainimarama’s comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters “it wasn’t the first time that leaders of Pacific island countries resented Australia’s behaviour.”
…
What can I say – Clearly China’s generous “no strings attached” approach to helping Pacific Islanders prepare for climate change carried the day.
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The country that uses up half of the coal the planet consumes lectures someone else on the environment. That’s gall.
These days, if you annoy the Chinese government, you will lose social credit points. In the 1980s they would have just executed you. China is changing a lot. As Victor Davis Hanson points out, our liberal elites are completely hypocritical. It could be that China is not quite that bad. Yes, their stance is hypocritical, it’s just not as hypocritical as our own home grown kind because that would be very very hard to match. Sorry Secretary Xi, but I call it like I see it. You must try harder.
. . . and this is the same nation state that thinks NOTHING about the environment as they aggressively bury reef system after reef system under dredged sand to create their own artificial islands in the South China Sea.
Hypocrites * 10^6.
Beware Greeks, or Chinese, carrying ‘gifts.
Mistrust any foreign power carrying gifts. There is no charity and no free lunches in international relations, as the Greeks discovered with more debt burden forces onto them as “financial assistance”.
U.S.A.I.D. commonly falsely presented as US “aid” similarly has a whole warehouse full of string with it.
If the Pacific Islander feel so insulted, as wise Aussie PM would do the right thing and stop insulting them with such condescending payments.
China burns 50% of the worlds coal, the most by a large margin and 25% of that is imported from Australia. If they are unhappy with our coal usage maybe we should stop selling it to them, there is no shortage of other customers.
No. That isn’t “gall”. It’s an in-your-face gigglesnort.
Well, China IS meeting their Paris Climate Agreement promises and Australia isn’t. Of course, if you are at all informed, then you know China’s promise is to CONTINUE INCREASING EMISSIONS EXPONENTIALLY UNTIL 2030 WITH NO PROMISE TO DECREASE IN THE FUTURE. So, it really is Australia’s fault for promising something they couldn’t deliver. Thank our Lord we have Trump. He’s one of the few in power who really knew the truth. No need to bankrupt the USA or steal money out of my pocket if no one else is going to make sacrifices. It’s easier and cheaper to live with any REAL climate change anyway, than try to prevent it.
Staggering Chinese chutzpah.
There’s no confusing or hiding anymore who’s got it in for us, who’s stirring the pot, and and who are the parasites trying to suck us dry on a bed of lies. And who sides with them?
ABC, SBS, BOM and New Zealand’s Prime Minister. What a disgusting bunch of ingrates.
Yeah, ‘no strings attached’, but chains are a different matter.
The ‘big men’ who run the Pacific Island nations are just two bit whores when it comes to extracting money and aid and the Chinese know it. Australia in particular has tightened up its aid funding which had been disappearing into ‘big men’ pockets and has pissed them off in doing so.
There are 22 Countries in Oceania with a population of less than 900,000, 12 of those have a population of less than 57,000, 9 of those have less than 21,000 and four of those have less than 1,800 people. The total population of those 22 countries is about 3,360,000. Australia has a population of over 25 million, Sydney alone has a population of over 5.2 million.
Australia pours millions of both Government and private aid every year into these piddly little countries and its OK for these countries to abuse Australia for generating the wealth necessary to provide that aid?
Exactly, despite eveything they say its about the monet and the cargo cult mentality that pervades these places. Perhaps if Oz wants to give money away they could stop giving $600mill away to the Indonesians every year in aid while the very same Indonesians spend $6-8 billion every year on defense. Give it to the Islanders , at least they know how to have a party.
Do you think it could be that the Chinese want to sell us more useless windmills?
China needs to fully practice what they preach and walk the talk.
If climate change will be So Bad for island nations, why is China building more low profile island masses on top of coral atolls in the South China Sea? How does this “Land Grab” affect THEIR China Sea neighbors?
Australia needs to tell Beijing to Pound Salt.
Until China no longer utilizes their Coal Supplies (in the name of Gaia) they have ZERO right to tell any other sovereign nation what they should do with their own energy sources. Until China begins to CUT their ample CO2 production, they have zero right to tell any other nation to do so.
Don’t be silly Bryan A. Preaching at China about their hypocrisy will do no good because they are a grown up sovereign country, unlike many others apparently. This is their energy policy, and it isn’t going to change because we or any other minor country nags them. What China does with its natural resources is entirely up to them, and likewise for us, unless we want to admit that some trivial, non-binding UN agreement determines our national energy policy and damages our economy. China understands trade and power. Pres Trump understands this. We rely on China for a big part of our coal exports, but they only amount to less than 40% of Chinas coal imports. China produces nearly 1000 million tonnes of coal, so our exports to China are less than 5% of their consumption. Ergo – we depend on China far more than they depend on us for coal!
Except that China needs our Iron Ore at the rate they are using it they will expend our reserves of Iron Ore in 30 years however the number 2 reserves are in Brazil and they would be gone in 15 years and China has the 4th largest reserves and they would be gone in 10 years. Australia also has the largest number of unproven Iron Ore reserves and we may actually be able to make 50 years at current rate.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267381/world-reserves-of-iron-ore-by-country/
That is why China cares about Australia because there is nowhere else to get that resource.
Yes, we can rant and rave till we are blue in the face about Chinese global policy – they will smile politely and carry on as usual. And they are of course just exploiting the Islanders’ fear of climate change. The Chinese have got their heads screwed on properly – they don’t care a hoot about CO2 emissions or “keeping global warming to 1.5 degree C.” They are in the business of creating and maintaining friendly markets for their industry – just like the English did to make the Indians buy cotton cloth. They are outsmarting us in our own game of capitalism – and they are winning (as Trump will find out) – and nothing can we do about it (except impotently rant and rave).
Looks like things haven’t improved since June.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/06/09/guardian-rebuilding-shattered-climate-action-reputations-in-the-pacific-will-require-lots-of-aid-money/
It’s basically a case of Australia Politicians have to pretend to care the voters in Australia really have set the agenda. We only emit 1.3% of the world emissions and we voted for economics and jobs over and if that makes us bad people we can live with the guilt.
At the end of the day the whole per capita emission control is some socialist construct that feeds into there idea of fair. I have consistently argued that a much fairer system would have been to connect GDP to emission control in that those with the biggest economies (ergo making the most money and largest emissions) should have to do the most. The Australian Tax system for example works that way in that it scales based on income and we find that the fair because the ones with the most capacity to pay are taxed more.
“We only emit 1.3% of the world emissions”
How convenient it is to privatise the energy but socialise the emissions. I thought most here were against socialism.
I think the division should by hemisphere. The southern hemisphere only produces 10% of the world’s emissions, why should they sacrifice?
The southern hemisphere only produces 10% of the world’s emissions, why should they sacrifice?
But don’t you contradict your own belief system here Loydo?
From here: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-long-term-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-reveals.html
“Until now, it has been known that land vegetation and oceans absorb as much as half of the CO2 emitted by human activities. This new study shows that the vegetation sink in the Northern Hemisphere has made a dominant contribution to global carbon uptake over the past 50 years. Far from being compromised by recent droughts and climate changes, this carbon sink has increased considerably over the last twenty years.
‘Since 1958, Northern Hemisphere vegetation has continued to absorb a significant amount of CO2, with two significant increases in uptake: once in the 1990s and then again in the 2000s. On the other hand, the carbon uptake in southern continents seems to be stagnating,’ explains Philippe Ciais, the researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Studies who led the analysis. ‘The models of the carbon cycle in vegetation and soils used to assess future CO2 projections and consider climate change have not been able to replicate the intensification of CO2 uptake observed in the 2000s.'”
Clearly the southern hemisphere has become lazy in doing its part to combat AGW, thus it ought to be punished forthwith, no?
This would all be very funny, if it were not for the fact it is all a 100% lie. Australia not doing enough for climate change with its 26 million people? I guess maybe OZ sending all that coal to China would count and maybe a special carbon tax should be applied to China for all their pollution they are causing the planet.
China has become a bold faced liar, everything it says is a lie thanks to the new Emperor Xi. He has single handed driven trust in China around much of the civilized world into the dirt, and much of that world is beginning to turn its back on China. And no one can criticize him domestically, let alone many nation states that are sternly warned about acting against China’s interest and foreign citizen’s kidnapped if their country say anything at all that China says is verboten.
Remember the lies Xi told Obama about signing the Paris Accord, or the 7 manmade islands in the South China Sea would never be militarized or they were’t there to steal any other countries EEZ? President Trump hasn’t even brought that up yet, but the South China Sea should be part of any overall trade deal. And the rest of the world should aggressively join President Trump in checking China. Trump is the only world leader willing to stand up to China, for the long term benefit of humanity against a growing fascist regime and everyone else just cowers in fear.
China is is beginning to crumble from within with their economy showing cracks of cratering as well. The contagion from Hong Kong is already spreading throughout China via their off shore citizens’ being urged (forced) to protest all around the world in favour of the Gov’t of China, against the foreign Hong Kong supporters. China is trying to flex their muscles all over the world making their diaspora support them, basically at gun point. This is dividing Chinese families, old and young, on loyalty to the band of thugs currently occupying the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City. Emperor Xi is now Emperor for life and he has no clothes!
That’s why Trump is ramping up the defense spending.
Australia needs to do that, too.
US defense studies say China may have the US outgunned in this area. This may give China a reason to act recklessly.
A strong defensive capability will deter a potential enemy. A weak defensive capabiity will encourage an enemy to push his envelope.
Of course, ultimately, China does not have the U.S. outgunned as the U.S. could completely destroy the Chinese empire if it really came down to it. The question is: How far will China push the United States? They won’t push nearly so hard if they are convinced they will not profit by such action and fielding an overwhelming defense is one way to send that message.
Here is an idea, have the US Navy only protect those tankers in the Middle East that are going to our allies (Australia, Japan, Taiwan, etc.) and the Chinese military will be shut down. They cannot operate without Mid-East Oil. That would crater much of their economy also-and force them to ‘save the planet’ from fossil fuels.
Australian navy is already joining US forces in the Middle East it was announced this morning after a request from Trump.
The PLA Rocket Force is said to render the USA Aircraft Carriers and Fleet very vulnerable in case of any conflict. The USA needs to invest heavily in LASER weapons to neuter that threat, as if that is left unchecked and spread to the ME and Africa, then there would be no choice but to inflect heavy damage on mainland China when they do start throwing their rocket/missile weight around. It doesn’t have to be this way, but President Xi insists. He and the PLA are the problem, not so much the hard working Chinese citizens. Economic discontent will hopefully be enough for the Chinese to rise up internally and execute regime change. This is in part IMHO, what the trade war with China is all about.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-army-rockets/
Just a small correction. China’s President, Xi Jinping, lives at Zhongnanhai which is located on the west side of the Forbidden City. The Imperial Place is a museum.
Ugg. Imperial “Palace” is a museum.
Earthling2 – you put it well, but I thought there should have been room in your comment for Pumpsump’s nice description (below) of China under Emperor Xi: stinking hypocrisy.
Xi is the world’s biggest problem now, bar none. Unfortunately, Australia cutting off funding to Pacific islands just plays into Xi’s hands. Unfortunately, when you correctly say “China is beginning to crumble from within”, there is almost certainly a long time frame involved. The free world is in for a long hard time from Xi.
Australia wasn’t going to cut off aid to the Pacific. We just granted them half a billion $ and still we get mud thrown at us for “doing nothing”. Our people had to work to create that half billion, not sit under a coconut palm strumming a ukulele. Australia is the main source of government funding for many of these islands.
The trouble is Australia now demands accountability for how the money is spent, on things like roads, hospitals, schools etc, and the corrupt leaders don’t like that because it is harder to siphon off funds for their own use.
New Guinea alone has demanded $1.5 billion this year or they will invite China in to give them the cash with plenty of strings attached. Just what we don’t need — a Chinese naval base 20 miles from the nearest Australian territory in Torres Strait and not much further to the mainland.
So maybe now is the time for Australia to come out and clearly confirm that there is no such thing as CAGW, that there should be no concern about the normal very slowly rising sea levels, and that global temperatures are slowly falling. About time somebody had the courage to announce this, and if it is accompanied by the usual OZ largesse for the islanders, perhaps they will accept it. Nothing like greasing a palm to be accepted.
Perhaps even our communistic NZ Prime Minister could be convinced!
Mike Lowe,
That is the true corrective action for the non-problem of CO2 non-pollution!
I suggest an edit to the headline to read:
“China Plays Aussie Alarmists For Fools, Ignore Data Showing That Pacific Atolls Are Growing In Land Area.”
Film at 11:00
Can you imagine the uproar if the headline read something like “Australia suggests Beijing reflect on how it treats its neighbours”
The lefties would have a fit, ” Fancy Australia having the temerity to lecture China”.
You have to admire the bare faced cheek of the man, IF co2 was such a problem and the number of Chinese coal fired power stations both under consruction and in the pipeline, the pot calling the kettle black doesn’t even get close! How much stinking hypocrisy do we have to wade around in before we drown?
Well maybe China can show them how to build an airport on a sea mount. –AGF
They could build one.of their many hundreds of coal fired power stations first in order to power the airport.
Then Oz should stop giving money to Pacific Island Nations, so the former recipients can cease being offended by similar comments in the future.
Next?
one last donation to them
windturbines
let them enjoy their green power
until the first good cyclone hits.
they wanna suck up to china..let them
and let them find out why its the most stupid thing they could do.
When I first read it, I saw Frank “Bananarama”, and thought of Cruel Summer.
Givemecasharama.
You mean it isn’t Bananarama? He should change it, it would suit him as the world-class rent-seeker he obviously is.
As for China, yikes – they’re getting dangerously close to Kim Jong Un and his father’s level of toddler-grade propaganda with this.
So the leading user of fossil fuels in the world is criticizing another country for not doing enough to combat Climate Change? Hello pot. Isn’t it about time some press is given to China’s hypocrisy?
Is this “China” that’s waging its finger at Austrailia for not transferring enough of its wealth to Pacific Islanders (whose islands are currently growing in area by the way) the same “China” that has hundreds of Coal Fired Power Plants in the pipeline all over the globe?
It’s becoming tricky navigating global realities since the TRUTH and COMMON SENSE have been tossed out the window. It’s all politics.
If we deniers want to hang on to Western Civilization and the US Constitution, we best get good at gaining and using some political power…and be willing to throw that power around even if it requires lying and cheating and breaking things and destroying people’s lives (i.e. Political Violence as is used without any restraint by our enemies in the Democrat Party and the MSM and in Academia).
We didn’t make up the rules if this very serious game…but we need to get into the game. There is everything at stake.
“Is this “China” that’s waging its finger at Australia for not transferring enough of its wealth to Pacific Islanders … ”
>>
What wealth is this?
The Australian tax-payer is maxed-out on debt, bled dry by serial venal dishonest state and federal governments, running on empty. All these laughably crooked Pacific micro-“states” see is a bunch of suckers they can parasitize until the host is kaput, and poke them in the eye repeatedly while they do it.
When has Australia been anything but a generous friend to these states, since WWII and the post-colonial era? Except for Naru (which got handsomely paid) this been a one-way cargo-cultist parasite ‘relationship’, and its become dysfunctional and counterproductive.
At this point I’m OK with severely cutting foreign aid to these Islanders and leaving them no option but to accept whatever loans the Chinese communist party offers, designed to enslave, fleece them and eliminate their feeble absurd ‘Sovereignty’ (which only we’ve bothered to respect) and relegate them to the next 50 years of poverty and ruin, while taking their resources, assets and the next generation’s future away.
Keep biting the friendly hand that feeds you, see how that turns out fools.
“Is this “China” that’s waging its finger at Austrailia”
Finger-waging is an international no-no. Finger-wagging on the other hand…
From the article: “he discussions on climate change reduced the Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva to tears while other Pacific leaders also expressed their disappointment.”
Isn’t that pitiful !
It’s time to play hardball with these facetious clowns Tom.
Just like the dingbat who founded extinction rebellion, as revealed in their blog! The planet is in such a terrible state that he used to hide in his bed weeping by the hour.
Less time blogging and dripping snot into his pillow and more time spent out of doors, and his particular sideshow at the idiot festival may never have come to pass.
Is China starting to build a case for stepping in “to help” the poor islanders not being properly taken care of by Australia?
No for the trade war and future it seeks to divide Australia and US, it would prefer Australia at worst independent or better allied to China.
Behavioral Psych 101:
When children have their allowances cut for bratish behavior that only begets more bratish behavior because that’s what worked in the past.
Well there’s another approach to these “states”, when they want stuff from Australia we now offer them loans with lots of strings attached, as the CCP would, and we put them deep into debt and take their resources and assets too.
What resources would those be? Coral atolls and mid-ocean volcanic islands don’t have oil, gas, minerals or timber. Coconuts maybe?
That’s why tourism is so important to these islands. It brings in money so they can buy stuff and live something like the comfortable life that we know. Plus, you know, milking foreign aid from better-endowed countries.
Smart,
Answer: One such resource is strategic location.
locals in the cook islands dont tend to do the menial work I gather
they import phillipinos for the scutwork
dont reckon the other places would be much different either.
meanwhile the ones that will work?
are to be found on subsidised fares and tax and accomodation working in Aus.
“China Criticises Australia for Not Doing Enough about Climate Change”, I don’t see that in the report.
Which country is the biggest supplier of things renewable?
The Chinese are learning to troll just as well as westerners.
You’ve gotta laugh, really. It must be so much fun for China in this position.
Provoking Western green crazies must be as easy as goading an angry dog cooped up inside a locked car.
As at 2017,
US – 5270 Mt CO2 – change from 1997 (Kyoto) minus 8%
China 9839 Mt CO2 – change from 1997 (Kyoto) plus 188%
Global 34742 Mt CO2 – change from 1997 (Kyoto) plus 47.57%
US 53% of China emissions, 15% of global total
China – 28% of global total
Asia – 48% of global total – change from 1997 (Kyoto) plus 125%
Australia 413 Mt CO2 – change from 1997 (Kyoto) plus 29%
Australia – 4.19% of China emissions, 1.18% of global total
Figures derived from http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/en/CO2-emissions
All of this nonsense about China and the so called CC. goes back to the original farce of KYOTO.
Faced with a collapse of the whole climate conference because of the the so called “”Third World”” nations refusing to sign up to reduce their “”Emissions”” of CO2, they saved the conference by saying that the Third World Nations be given 30 years to “”Catch Up” to the first world nations much higher standard of living.
Since then we have two of these Third World Nations, India and China have the Atom Bomb and a very large military and both are well advanced with their e Space program. Compare them to how the UK was in 1900 and their mix of wealth and a very prosperous middle class is about the same as the UK back then, when it the UK was recognised as the number one nation in the World.
Kyoto needs to be recalled and such a blatant arrangement changed.
MJE VK5ELL
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke from the ribbon cutting ceremony at a new Chinese coal-fired power plant.
This article shows how stupid the West seems to be to the Chinese. We have given them plenty of reasons for thinking this, perhaps Australia more than most.
Don’t forget Mr. Potato in Canada.
Even the Obama Administration recognized the threat to Oz posed by growing ChiCom power and ambition.
Last month, a second battalion joined US Marine Rotational Force Darwin, as originally proposed in 2011.
https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/australia-bound-battalion-will-boost-marines-darwin-presence-to-2-500-1.578356
In the event of a Red Chinese invasion, even two Marine battalions and associated air and support units would be no more than a tripwire, but make US support of Oz more likely.
Trump is right that our allies are free-loading on American defense spending and manpower.
Our NATO allies are pathetic, but Japan and Australia equally so or worse.
America has many more actual combat veterans than Oz has adult citizens. Oz spends many times more on do-nothing slackers than it does its armed forces.
The US has more than twice as many active and reserve military personnel per capita than Oz, and spends much more than that ratio on defense. Japan if anything is even worse, despite recent upgrades. Yet these two allies are at risk from ChiCom expansionism. The USA, not so much. As in, not at all, except perhaps freedom of navigation of the seas.
Oz is uograding her air defenses, but they’re still pathetic. The Australian army has a single tank battalion with 59 Abramses.
As I said, pathetic. Worse than.
And its regime has disarmed its citizens, so that all China needs to subdue Oz is nylon for its parachutes.
Don’t worry we can always do a monty python and bite them, mere flesh wound I tell you.
yeah , thanks usa for our abysmal airplanes we have just 2? of here some in usa and their ability to work properly is a huge ?mark
the money wasted and time as well while what we had deteriorates further..helped make us open to risks
yeah , thanks usa for our abysmal airplanes we have just 2? of here some in usa and their ability to work properly is a huge ?mark
errr . . . pardon?
the money wasted and time as well while what we had deteriorates further..helped make us open to risks
Still lost . . . could you repeat that?
So we have to destroy our handful of coal fired power plants which make an infinitesimal impact on climate which will destroy our economy while China builds a new coal fired power plant every couple of weeks. Acting on this request is suicide. Any politician that agrees with the request is a TRAITOR.