Whose sky is it anyway?

China is fighting for its right to pollute. The government has banned Chinese airlines from paying a pointless new European emissions tax. The argument isn’t about the environment. It’s about China’s “don’t intervene” foreign policy, which led it to veto a UN resolution against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on February 4. This time, China has the moral high ground.

China’s view is simple: Stay out of our business and we’ll stay out of yours. It explains a tolerance for unsavoury regimes in Syria or Sudan. Beijing has used its Security Council veto only a handful of times since 1971, when it took over from Taiwan. But, in the eyes of rich countries which accept a “duty to protect”, even occasional non-intervention looks callous. China blocked UN moves against regimes in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, and abstained on anti-Taliban measures in 2000.

The EU’s new airline pollution tax is a new riff on that theme. From January 1, airlines landing or taking off in European airports must pay for the carbon dioxide they emit during their entire flight. So, a flight from Beijing to London must pay the EU for gases it emits over Kazakhstan, Mongolia and even China. From a Chinese perspective — and an American or Indian one — that looks like intervention in other countries’ affairs.

In this case, Beijing looks about right. True, the EU tax punishes a British airline flying from London to Shanghai as much a Chinese one. But, it unilaterally makes airlines pay EU member-states for something that happens above other countries. In effect, the Europeans are claiming sovereign rights over foreign skies. Regardless of China’s weak record on global warming action, or the possibility of lost orders for Airbus, the EU should yield on principle.

Chinese principles may yet be modified for the sake of global harmony. Beijing’s says its airlines can’t pay the tax “without official permission”, leaving space for negotiations. But, as China gets richer and more powerful, other countries will have to pay more attention to its view of sovereign rights. The “dirty skies” row shows that’s not always a bad thing.