China charts its own climate path

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

China will chart its own path to cut climate emissions, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 told dozens of officials yesterday, at the same time that U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called for more efforts to combat climate change in a high-profile visit to China.

“China’s commitments are unswerving, but the path towards the goals as well as the manner, pace and intensity of efforts to achieve them should and must be determined by the country itself, rather than swayed by others,” Xi said.

Meanwhile, Kerry met with China’s Vice President Hán Zhèng 韩正 today on his final day of talks in Beijing, in a trip aimed at restarting stalled climate talks and the latest diplomatic push by Washington to reset fraying ties between the superpowers.

China’s first reusable spacecraft will be launched as soon as 2027, Yáng Lìwěi 杨利伟, the first Chinese astronaut in space and now a deputy chief of China Manned Space Engineering, said at a forum on Monday. It will be able to carry seven astronauts and “will also play a critical role in future construction of China’s space station and moon landing mission,” according to Yang.

China named Dǒng Jīngwěi 董经纬 as the new head of Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong, according to an official statement released yesterday. Dong, 59, is a counterespionage veteran and former top official to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS).

The Hong Kong government “will continue to work and communicate closely with the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR and to do its utmost in implementing the Hong Kong National Security,” the city’s Chief Executive John Lee (李家超 Lǐ Jiāchāo) said upon the appointment.

Morgan Stanley is moving more than 200 technology developers out of China to Hong Kong and Singapore, Bloomberg reported today, after Beijing issued a sweeping law to guard its massive troves of data and other sensitive information from “national security threats.”

Chinese state media: Party paper the People’s Daily’s print edition is all Xi Jinping on the front page, with a piece on Xi’s speech at a conference on ecological protection, an article on Xi’s “important exposition on water control”, and a third on Xi’s meeting yesterday with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

There is, of course, more Xi on the website of state news agency Xinhua: The lead story is about China’s military, ​​headlined “Strive to strengthen the army under the banner of the Party — A review of the party leadership and Party building of the people’s army in the new era under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core.”

Xunhua’s English website has a more foreigner-friendly top story: China vows to spur growth of private economy.