China is a schizophrenic power, a developing country on select international issues but a rising superpower that sees itself in the same league as the United States in other matters, with its new muscular confidence on open display. At the recent Copenhagen climate-change summit meeting, China was the former: It loudly emphasized its membership in the developing world and quietly used poor countries, especially from Africa, to raise procedural obstacles in the negotiations.
Make no mistake: China, the world's largest net polluter whose carbon emissions are growing at the fastest rate, was the principal target at Copenhagen. But China cleverly deflected pressure by hiding behind small, poor countries and forging a negotiating alliance with India and two other major developing countries, Brazil and South Africa, who together are known as the BASIC bloc.
China escaped without making a binding commitment on carbon- emissions cuts, at least for now. But the real loser was carbon-light India, which undercut its interest by getting bracketed with the world's largest polluter. In the process, India was compelled, along with other BASIC members, to agree to national mitigation actions under undefined international monitoring. Through the so-called Copenhagen Accord, India also has helped formulate, even if unintentionally, the broad terms for amending the existing climate-change regime, even though its interests demand no revision.