Jerry Brown, Governor of California, met last week with Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Communist Party and President of China, presumably to talk about how China and California can cooperate in reducing emissions in places other than Los Angeles and Beijing. Both of these places could use some help in that regard, but going to China to seek cooperation is like going to Iran to help stop terrorism. Andrew Browne, one of my favorite China analysts, looks at the futility of the Chinese leading anyone in the global warming world, anytime soon [see Don’t Count on China as Next Climate Crusader - The Wall Street Journal, today].
We have to remember that China is a great friend of the Governor. It is pumping money into the Great Railroad to nowhere and helping him in his political campaigns. There will no doubt be more of the same, and the Governor's trip to China probably has a lot more to do with that than with its leadership in climate control. Browne [the author] is considerably more astute about the prospects for China's help in reducing coal emissions or relying on green energy sources. His article has a picture of a park in Beijing that is shrouded in a heavy mist while its citizens wear masks to keep the pollutants out of their lungs.
Los Angeles and Bakersfield have the fourth worst air pollution of any cities in the country, leaving us to conclude that he might spend more time working on his on state instead of flying to China to get their cooperation. He probably spent taxpayer money on that trip, but got more than that back in Chinese investments in California. We saw a good example of how it works with Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines who managed to get the money for public works projects (just like California) as a payoff for cooperation with China's view of the world. That puts Governor Brown in good company.
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