Forty-eight left-wing groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden and members of Congress calling on them to look the other way on China’s human rights abuses in favor of cooperation on climate issues.
“We are deeply troubled by the growing Cold War mentality driving the United States’ approach to China— an antagonistic posture that risks undermining much-needed climate cooperation,” the groups wrote in the letter Wednesday, first reported by Politico.
Signatories include CODEPINK, which supports socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and the Sunrise Movement, which is backed by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and uses children and teenagers at their protests.
Criticism of China “does nothing to actually support the well-being of everyday people in either China or the United States,” they continued, calling “on the Biden administration and all members of Congress to… prioritize multilateralism, diplomacy, and cooperation with China to address the existential threat that is the climate crisis.”
As a new Cold War takes shape between the U.S. and China, progressives fear the result will be a dramatically warming planet https://t.co/RDhfe3bl6t
— POLITICO (@politico) July 7, 2021
Biden’s continued “demonization of China” will remain “a major barrier to progress in global climate talks,” the writers further claim. “Nothing less than the future of our planet” is at stake.
The letter also claimed that “anti-China rhetoric in both Congress and the White House… bolsters racist, right-wing movements in the United States [and] fuels violence against people of East and Southeast Asian descent.”
The letter provided no evidence for that argument. It also did not mention China’s genocidal campaign against the Uyghur minority group and crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong. (RELATED: The US Declared China Is Committing Genocide Against Uyghurs—What Happens Next?)
Biden has utilized a more confrontational approach to China than he did as a senator and as vice president, although he has expressed a preference for a multilateral approach. He has also said that the U.S. “must speak up for human rights” because “it’s who we are.”
China was responsible for 27% of the world’s carbon emissions in 2019, the most of any country, according to a report from the energy consulting firm Rhodium Group. The U.S. was responsible for 11%, the second most, and India was third with 6.6%. China plans to continue increasing carbon emissions until 2030.