China plans to launch national cap-and-trade system

The lobster will be poached in butter and served with traditional rice noodle rolls embedded with spinach, shiitake mushrooms and leeks when President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to dinner in the East Room with a few hundred guests.

Expectations are mounting on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to the US on enhanced collaboration in fighting climate change with its USA counterpart.

China is preparing to announce plans to launch a national system to limit greenhouse gases and force industries to purchase pollution credits, Obama administration officials said Thursday. Washington is considering sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals.

Internet users from USA and other countries have expressed their welcome, respect and expectations to Xi on the official accounts of People’s Daily on Weibo, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The announcement could help to counter criticism from conservative opponents of the Obama administration’s efforts to fight climate change, who have contended that the United States shouldn’t act because Beijing has done little to reduce its emissions. Meanwhile, Xi insisted in a speech on Tuesday that the Chinese government was operating normally and not in jeopardy.

“There are no two big countries in human history that have had a relationship as close as that between China and the USA today”, proclaimed the People’s Daily. Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice were also on hand for the informal dinner, where both world leaders ditched their ties. Last year, Obama traveled to Beijing, and the two leaders strolled in the sprawling gardens next to the Forbidden City and met over a lengthy private dinner where details of the climate change agreement were finalized.

“Those kinds of comments are at least consistent with what we have urged the Chinese to do when it comes to their policies”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday.

The new plan would more or less just consolidate them.

The USA and China hope to use those Paris talks to get every nation to commit to curbing their emissions, the Times reported.

The state dinner will also provide an opportunity for the USA and Chinese officials to continue the important discussions that are expected to take place earlier in the day, Kritenbrink said.

China has denied being behind cyberspying in the US and says it, too, is a victim of such espionage. Some analysts believe Obama has more leverage due to China’s slowing economic growth, which has destabilized global markets and raised doubts about Xi’s economic stewardship.

“Although many of my successors as president have made negative comments about relations with China during their campaigns, nearly all of these have been moderated when they were elected to our nation’s top office”.

While Obama’s aides say no formal agreement is likely, Chinese officials have suggested the possibility of a basic deal against cyber warfare.

As for whether the pope’s visit had overshadowed Xi’s, Earnest said: “I have not heard anybody raise that concern”.

In the South China Sea, China is building a series of man-made, militarized islands 600 miles off its coastline and then claiming the surrounding air and sea rights.