The Hill: China slams U.S. environmental record after critical State Dept report
“China’s foreign ministry knocked the U.S. on Monday in response to a statements from the State Department criticizing Beijing’s record on environmental policy. The Associated Press reported that a statement from Wang Wenbin, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, slammed the Trump administration’s move to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, signed under the Obama administration and abandoned informally by the U.S. in a 2017 speech by President Trump. By exiting the multinational agreement, the U.S. had become the ‘biggest destroyer of international environmental cooperation’ on the planet, according to Wang. … The comments come following a statement from Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokeswoman, who accused Beijing of pursuing ‘a reckless and provocative militarization’ of islands in the region, as well as a separate statement from the agency trashing China’s environmental record…” (Bowden, 9/28).