An Interesting Sign

It's the weekend, so I made my weekly trek over to Watching America. Lots of international discussion about the global economy with lots of pointed fingers, many in our direction, but that may just be the site's bias this week.

One article that wasn't about the global meltdown came from China View, an English language newspaper published in China and carried by Xinhua for the internet. The tag at the top of the page is interesting "China View: Publicize China, Report the World." That certainly does give a clear notice of the paper's intent.

The article I was interested in had to do with a possible partnership between the US and China on combating climate change and is an interview with an American professor.

Although the U.S.-China relationship has made much progress in the past 30 years, mutual mistrust over each other's long-term intentions remains deep, said Professor Kenneth Lieberthal from the University of Michigan.

But now there is an opportunity for the two countries to increase mutual trust through the cooperation on climate change, Lieberthal said in a recent interview with Xinhua. ...

Such cooperation would yield several important results, including making it easier for both governments to be more effective in promoting climate change measures domestically, he said.

Secondly, "the effective cooperation will focus on the broader issue of clean energy," he said. "Finally, I think there will have a very good effect on the global negotiations in helping to bridge the differences between the industrialized world and the developing world as a whole."

"So I think there are a lot of very serious benefits to the U.S.-China cooperation on climate change," said Lieberthal.

Through full and effective cooperation on clean energy and related climate change issues, "we can build the kind of long-term trust," he said.

This is essentially the position suggested by Secretary of State Clinton during her recent tour of Asia, so it's clear that the interview of Professor Lieberthal was timely. What is so interesting is that the interview actually took place and that Xinhua is plumping it through several Chinese outlets, including an English language one.

Xinhua is part of the carefully managed media that the government keeps a fairly tight grip on so it is entirely possible that China's leaders are willing to work with the US on this global issue in a way that could have a tremendous impact on the problem.

If that's the case, it's good news. Damned good news.