The UK, Germany and Japan, all developed countries, have mature technologies for energy conservation, environmental protection and a green economy. They want to play a leading role in promoting international cooperation on climate change, but due to an inadequate understanding of the national conditions of developing countries, they have raised some unrealistic and unfair demands.

On the afternoon of December 17, Premier Wen had separate meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and discussed with them about relevant issues in a patient and thoughtful way.

Premier Wen pointed out that at this critical juncture, all parties should stop finger pointing. Still less should they engage in bargaining, as this would only waste time. All parties should observe the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities," bear in mind the broader interests, quickly build consensus and shelve disputes, and work together for a successful outcome.

Premier Wen stressed the fact that China's voluntary mitigation target had no strings attached and was not pegged to the emissions reduction target of any other country. It was not negotiable as well. Premier Wen said China would honor its words with action and would spare no effort to meet or even exceed the target, as this was in the interest of the Chinese people and those around the world. China would like to carry out consultations and cooperation on increasing the transparency of its voluntary mitigation actions and steer its efforts toward holding the global temperature rise within 2 degrees Celsius. This demonstrated China's utmost sincerity.

Premier Wen emphasized that the developing countries had the prime task of eradicating poverty and growing their economies, but this should not be done along the old path of industrialization followed by developed countries and at the expense of resources and the environment. Developed countries should appreciate and support this and honor their commitments on financial and technological assistance. Developing and developed countries should work closely together to bring about the best result possible out of the conference.

Despite differences over certain issues, all the talks were held in a frank and in-depth manner, because this was the only way to increase mutual understanding and expand common ground.

The meetings all went longer than originally planned. After seeing off Prime Minister Brown, Premier Wen apologized to the waiting German Chancellor Merkel, "Madam Chancellor, sorry to have kept you so long." The chancellor replied with humor: When Prime Minister Brown bumped into her on his way out, he said exactly the same thing. People in the room burst into laughter.

As soon as the meetings came to a close, Premier Wen asked Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei to hold a press conference to give a detailed briefing on his meetings with various leaders and explain on what issues China had to stick to its position and on what other issues China would be ready to show flexibility. More than 200 Chinese and foreign journalists attended the press conference and they swiftly reported to the world China's latest position and its communication with other parties.

At 8:00 p.m. on December 17, Premier Wen attended a dinner hosted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. It marked the beginning of the high-level segment of the Copenhagen conference.

Something unexpected, however, happened during the dinner. A foreign leader mentioned to Premier Wen inadvertently that a certain country would call a small-group leaders' meeting following the dinner to discuss a new text. This caught Premier Wen's attention, because the list of invited countries held by this leader had the name China on it, yet the Chinese side had never received any notification about this meeting. Premier Wen then sought confirmation with some other leaders, who told him that indeed such a meeting was scheduled after the dinner. It was really absurd that the country who called for the meeting never informed China.

Premier Wen concluded that this was no small matter. Since the start of the conference, there had been cases where individual or small group of countries put forward new texts in disregard of the principle of openness and transparency, arousing strong complaints from other participants. He immediately left for the hotel, where he convened a meeting to discuss how to respond.

Upon Premier Wen's instruction, Vice Foreign Minister He rushed to the venue of the small-group meeting and raised serious concerns with the host for arranging such a meeting with hidden motives. He stressed that the principle of openness and transparency must be respected. No one should try to form small circles or force decisions upon others, or they would risk leading the conference to failure.

In the meantime, speculations and rumors of all sorts were prevalent: some developed countries were planning together privately to put more pressure on China; major emerging countries were vehemently obstructing the negotiation process, and the conference was therefore very likely to end in failure; developed countries, unhappy with China's rejection of MRV, refused to offer more financial assistance to small island states; the developing camp was beginning to fall apart; a certain big power intended to propose its own text, and so on and so forth. All signs pointed to a less and less optimistic picture.