Security officials in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, August 20, 2022, at the edge of the dried-up riverbed of a Yangtze River tributary from which they were evacuating onlookers. MARK SCHIEFELBEIN v AP
Somewhat overshadowed by the COP27 on climate change and the COP15 on biodiversity in Montreal in December, China is currently chairing the COP14 on wetland protection. This will officially take place in Wuhan (China) from November 5th to 13th, but also in Geneva, with Beijing’s zero-Covid policy preventing almost all foreign speakers from traveling to China.
As a sign of the importance of the topic for Beijing, President Xi Jinping addressed a message to the participants at the opening of their work. Similarly, Beijing pushed through a “Wuhan Declaration” on Sunday. She regrets that despite the commitments made by the international community at Ramsar in Iran in 1971, “the extent of natural wetlands has declined by 35%, resulting in a loss of irreplaceable ecosystems”. Stakeholders will “seek to take all appropriate action to halt and reverse the loss of wetlands globally”.
The text “recognises the important role played by civil society and non-state actors, particularly women and young people, as well as local communities, in the implementation of the Ramsar Convention”. A not entirely trivial paragraph penned by China.
support for Russia
But an incident occurred at the ministerial conference held by video on Sunday. According to our information, China, which translated the speeches into different languages, censored the passages about Ukraine that appeared in two speeches: that of the representative of France, delivered by the consul general in Wuhan, and that of the ambassador of Slovenia, carried from Geneva.
The French text read: “Wetlands are among the richest ecosystems on earth. They are also among the most endangered. They do not spare crises. They do not spare conflicts. In this regard, France strongly condemns the unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine. It is a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.” Not only was this passage not translated into Chinese or English, but the interpreters replaced it with harmless words.
Also read: Wetlands, a universal heritage under threat
On October 27, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by phone. “China will firmly support the Russian side, led by President Vladimir Putin, to unite and guide the Russian people to overcome difficulties and quell unrest, achieve strategic development goals and enhance Russia’s place as a great power in the international arena to enhance. ‘ the Chinese account reads.