Liberty Case

California governor trip shows US-China engagement is still possible on a state level

BY HUIZHONG WU

BANGKOK (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s trip to China, with the stated goal of working together to fight climate change, resulted in a surprise meeting with leader Xi Jinping and was filled with warm words and friendliness not seen in years in the China-U.S. relationship.

The trip was seen as one of the steps in paving the way for U.S. President Joe Biden and Xi to meet in San Francisco in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but it also highlighted the existing relationship that China has with California, showing that even when tensions are high between the two countries, collaboration is still possible on some levels.

The reception from China “sends a very clear signal that working with California is desired and, at minimum, politically safe and encouraged,” said Alex Wang, a professor of law at UCLA who focuses on the environment.

READ MORE : Agreement reached for Biden-Xi talks, but details still being worked out, official tells AP

U.S.-China relations have deteriorated significantly since 2018 over issues as wide-ranging as trade, the origin of COVID-19 and the national security crackdown in Hong Kong. That is true both for the two countries at the national level, and for state-level engagement

States’ involvement with China has fallen off rapidly in the past five years, as the bilateral relationship deteriorated under the Trump administration and further soured with the pandemic, according to research from Kyle Jaros, a professor of global affairs at University of Notre Dame.

Yet, that engagement is what China wants, he said, as it views U.S. states as pragmatic partners in business without having to wade into politics.

California has a steady and long working relationship with China.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican governor, started the formal relationship with China over climate cooperation a decade ago, Jaros said. His successor, the Democrat Jerry Brown, continued the relationship even as the U.S. started turning away from China during the Trump administration. At one point, the California government even had a staffer based in China.

The state is also home to the biggest population of Chinese-Americans nationally, sharing historical and cultural ties.

“It’s a long-standing, deep relationship where many people have met,” said Wang, who is also the co-director at UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

Much of the cooperation on climate is on technical information-sharing and showing the other side how they did things, said Wang, who has done some of the collaborative work himself. The information shared is often not high-level, but is about the thousands of smaller decisions, “such as how do you finance electric buses, who pays for it, how do you set up the charging infrastructure?”

California could learn more about offshore wind technologies from China, which is a global leader in using the tech, Wang said.

Politically, the trip allowed Newsom, who appears to be positioning himself for a future presidential run, to polish his diplomatic credentials by engaging with Chinese leaders on a signature policy issue, climate change.

Newsom’s administration is pushing to expand solar power and other clean energy as the state aims to cut emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. State regulators also have banned the sale of most new gas-powered cars in California by 2035.

Newsom has repeatedly said he’s not interested in the presidency, but he is widely viewed as a likely future Democratic contender.

For the Chinese side, the meeting with Newsom could lead to economic opportunities. Experts say one reason Xi may have chosen to meet with Newsom is the economic headwinds that China is facing, and California presents a potential source of foreign investment.

“China’s economic downturn is also a factor (in) why Xi Jinping is now engaging much more with outside stakeholders,” said Alfred Wu, a professor who studies Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore.

Youth unemployment is at a high of about 20% this year, and the real-estate sector has been weak in recent years as developers are saddled with heavy debts.

Beijing’s engagement with state-level governments have always been about pragmatic things like doing business, Jaros added. Newsom’s “red-carpet” treatment “shows how Beijing wants to stabilize the sub-national plank … finding partners who are intent on working with China economically and scientifically.”

Back home, the trip has been attacked on a variety of fronts.

Newsom has faced some criticism for press access, as the Chinese government decided to shut American reporters out of Newsom’s meeting with Xi.

Meanwhile, the California family of a Christian pastor who has been detained in China since 2006 said Newsom should take any possible opportunity to argue for his release.

Newsom’s office said David Lin’s detention came up during a series of meetings in Beijing, as did human rights violations and anti-democratic efforts in Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere. His office didn’t specify which Chinese officials Newsom spoke to about those issues.

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AP writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, and Christopher Megerian in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

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Agreement reached for Biden-Xi talks, but details still being worked out, official tells AP

BY DIDI TANG, MATTHEW LEE AND AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a U.S. official familiar with the planning.

The two sides worked out an agreement in principle to hold a meeting during the summit as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that the two sides have still not worked out details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics.

READ MORE :United States and China launch economic and financial working groups with aim of easing tensions

The White House said in a statement following Friday’s meetings that the two sides were “working toward” a Biden-Xi face-to-face on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.

Earlier Friday, Biden met with Wang, holding an hourlong talk with the senior Chinese official in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. The meeting, with Blinken and Sullivan present, was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

The White House said Biden “emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication,” and he “underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden viewed his meeting with Wang as “a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.”

Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.

Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual APEC summit, which runs from Nov. 11 to Nov. 17.

Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where he’s been meeting with top U.S. officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.

On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.”

In its readout, the U.S. State Department said the two men addressed “areas of difference” and “areas of cooperation,” while Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.”

Wang said before Thursday’s meeting that China’s goal was to “push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.

U.S. officials had said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The U.S. has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.

“China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm” in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.”

U.S. officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Wang came to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

On Thursday, the U.S. military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend U.S. military officials call concerning.

The U.S. also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.

Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The U.S. destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.

Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that “the U.S. is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler.”

The Pentagon rejected China’s characterization of the USS Ralph Johnson’s movements, saying the video includes only “cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction.” The ship “complied with international law” and “operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner,” the Pentagon said.

During his visit to Washington, Wang was also expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.

The Chinese president last came to the U.S. in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on U.S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.

The U.S.-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden-Xi meeting would bring much-needed stability to relations between the two countries, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.

“The keyword here is ‘stabilization’ of bilateral ties — not really improvement, but stabilization,” Sun said. “The world needs the U.S. and China to take on a rational path and stabilize their relationship, offering the region and the world more certainty.”

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Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

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