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China transfers top climate negotiator

He Yafei

BEIJING: He Yafei, one of China’s top negotiators at the climate talks in Copenhagen, was removed from his post this week as Vice Foreign Minister amid an increasingly rancorous blame-game between Beijing and the West over China’s role in the negotiations.

No official explanation was given for his transfer. But media reports and sources in the government indicated that a likely reason was his failure to do enough to iron out disagreements with Western negotiators.

A Foreign Ministry official told The Hindu on Wednesday Mr. He was not reassigned to another post yet, but sources said he would likely be given a position representing China at the United Nations.

In recent weeks, European and American diplomats have strongly blamed China for the failure of the summit to reach a substantive agreement. Western diplomats have accused Chinese officials of blocking negotiations and rejecting all proposals for any concrete reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Foreign Ministry here last week strongly defended China’s role, saying the criticism from the West “was made in order to shirk the obligations of developed countries to their developing counterparts and foment discord among developing countries.”

While Premier Wen Jiabao was the highest ranked Chinese official at Copenhagen, he chose not to attend many of the discussions, even those with other heads of state.

Mr. He was left with the task of doing the actual deal-making. But given his lower rank, he did not have the mandate to make significant decisions that in any way diverted from official policy, analysts said. At the discussions, Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were reported to have voiced their displeasure at having to negotiate with a lower ranked official.

Mr. He was in the news at Copenhagen following a much publicised war-of-words with U.S. negotiator Todd Stern. Following Mr. Stern’s statement that China would not receive any funding from the U.S. and only poorer nations would, Mr. He said the U.S. official “either lacks common sense or is extremely irresponsible.”

Amid the bitter fallout from Copenhagen, China has moved quickly to rally developing nations to ensure unity in their positions before negotiations resume in Mexico later this year.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and one of China’s lead negotiators, last week wrote to Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment and Forests, calling for a ministerial level consultation of the BASIC group (China, India, Brazil and South Africa). Mr. Xie warned of Western countries seeking to divide developing nations, and called for the BASIC group to once again co-ordinate their positions on the compromise Copenhagen accord.

The meeting will likely take place in the third week of January.

Of relevance to India is the appointment of Cui Tiankai, who takes over Mr. He’s charge of Asian affairs.

Mr. Cui has served as Ambassador to Japan and was credited with presiding over a thaw in the often tense relations between the two neighbours.

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