US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday told Wu Bangguo, the second most powerful man in China’s ruling Communist Party, that the world could learn from Beijing’s approach to climate change.
“It is clear that the world can learn a lot, a great deal, from what China is doing. Hopefully, we can learn from each other,” the senior Democrat said as she welcomed Wu, who is also chairman of China’s National People’s Congress.
Pelosi said he and her guest would discuss the global economic crisis as well as US criticisms of Beijing’s human rights record and the way forward to December global climate change talks in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
“As we approach Copenhagen, it’s important for China and the United States to come to some understanding. Our countries are great, they are significant and large, and their decisions affect the whole world,” she said.
“The US-China relationship is a very important one, economically, culturally, politically, environmentally to both of our countries and, again, to the world,” Pelosi said during a brief joint public appearance.
The California Democrat played a vital role in driving legislation aimed at battling climate change through the US House of Representatives in June. The US Senate is due to unveil its version in late September.
Wu, speaking through an interpreter, underlined that he was making the first visit by China’s parliamentary head to the United States in 20 years and declared Sino-US ties “the most important, most dynamic… bilateral relationship in the world.
“The purpose of my visiting the United States is to further grow the bilateral relationship,” he said, citing “extensive common interests” on ending the global financial crisis and fighting climate change.
