Confident China plays active role at G8 summit (Feature)

By Andreas Landwehr Jul 7, 2008, 12:19 GMT

Toyako, Japan - A confident China is determined to play an active role at the ongoing Group of Eight (G8) summit of leading industrial nations.

Instead of adopting a defensive posture in the debate on climate change, senior officials in the world's most populous nation have warned against 'empty talk' about long-term goals.

China is pressing the rich industrial nations to adopt concrete short and medium-term targets to curb the output of greenhouse gases, a major cause of global warming.

It also wants the gathering in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, to present concrete proposals to deal with the global food crisis and spiralling oil prices.

Developing countries in particular are suffering from rising energy and food costs and are also the 'worst victims' of global warming, Chinese government officials said ahead of President Hu Jintao's arrival in Toyako.

Never before has a Chinese leadership been so active at a G8 summit since it was first allowed to attend the annual gathering of the club of rich nations at Evian in France in 2003.

Now China and fellow emerging economies India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa are regular participants because without them it is no longer possible to resolve pressing global issues.

'It is a good opportunity for China to play an influential role as a powerful country,' said Professor Yu Yingli of the Institute for International Studies in Shanghai.

If economic clout alone is the criterion for membership of the G8, then China would have to be included alongside current members Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the US, Japan and Canada because it is now the world's fourth biggest economy.

'If China received an invitation, I'm certain that we'd like to join,' Yu Yingli said. But the present mechanism is functioning well, he said, adding 'the fact that China is taking part means we are recognized as a global power.'

Shortly before the summit, China's State Council adopted a plan to increase grain production to show the world that it is capable of feeding its 1-billion-plus population.

In order to ensure that China can continue to meet at least 95 per cent of its grain needs in the coming 12 years, farmland will be better protected and the rural infrastructure improved.

The plan is 'the biggest contribution towards securing global food supplies,' according to Agriculture Ministry director Liu Zhengdong.

What is more urgent, however, is guaranteeing affordable energy supplies to fuel China's economic boom.

Spiralling oil prices have been blamed by the government on a shortfall in production, growing demand, a weak US dollar and speculation.

Vice Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi feels the United States has to do more to help the ailing dollar and oil producers should increase output.

China has shown little willingness to compromise on the issue of climate change, even though the politburo recently made combatting global warming a national challenge.

Instead, it points to its goal of reducing energy consumption per yuan of economic output by 20 per cent in 2010 compared to the 2005 figure. But it is well short of achieving this target.

China believes the rich nations have to do more because they are to blame for most of the globe's accumulation of greenhouse gases and have higher per capita emissions than many other countries.

Without China, it will not be possible to win the fight against global warming.

It is the world's biggest consumer of coal and is poised to overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.