The following article by Julian Wong at the excellent blog Green Leap Forward, provides a concise update of Beijing’s stated position going into climate-change negotiations on the successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in 2012.

Full article, an executive summary of a newly issued government white paper, is here.

In a nutshell, the rich-versus-poor-nations friction is is likely to continue as a key theme, with China is holding firm to its demand that the developed countries take more responsibility and leadership for addressing the problem … providing both funding and technology transfer necessary to help developing countries reduce greenhouse emissions.

Fair enough to ask the wealthier nations to own up to their role in how we got to the current level of atmospheric carbon, but China is sure to be challenged in this position, given its leading emissions rate going forward. See related article.