In 2013, when Beijing environmentalist Li Shuo suggested Chinese policymakers take the lead on climate change, the reactions were less than enthusiastic.

“Chinese officials rejected the idea immediately,” Li recalled. “They were worried that developed countries would take advantage of their move and force China to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

Now the landscape is markedly different. At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting last month in Davos, Switzerland, China’s President Xi Jinping (習近平) urged the United States to stay in the “hard won” Paris climate deal.

At the same time, China Daily quoted Xie Zhenhua ( 解振華 ), China’s special envoy to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, as saying that “China is capable of taking a leadership role in combating global climate change.”

… “Climate diplomacy between China and other Asian countries has the potential to improve and advance relations among them,” said Margareth Sembiring, senior analyst with the Centre for Non-traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.