California Governor Visits China, Keen to Partner on Climate Change – The Diplomat

The governor of California opened a week-long journey to China on Monday with an assurance that his state will all the time be a companion on local weather points, regardless of how the U.S. presidential election seems subsequent yr.

Democrat Gavin Newsom’s go to comes as China-U.S. relations witnessed a pointy deterioration in recent times on account of commerce disputes, U.S. assist for self-governing Taiwan, and human rights issues, amongst different contentious points.

Making an attempt to strengthen his state’s function as a worldwide chief on local weather change, Newsom started his go to with a climate-themed dialogue on the College of Hong Kong. He advised the viewers they “can depend on California,” whereas addressing claims that the US will not be a dependable ally.

“I need you to know, no matter what occurs nationally, subnationally, you have got a companion within the state of California,” he mentioned.

Local weather stays one space the place China-U.S. collaboration is seen as potential and crucial, however even this sector has not been immune from tensions. In August 2022, China introduced it was suspending local weather talks with the US in retaliation for then-U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s go to to Taiwan. Nonetheless, each nations seem to have absolutely re-engaged within the run-up to the following U.N. local weather change convention, which opens November 30 in Dubai.

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John Kerry, the Biden administration’s local weather envoy, visited China in July 2023, a part of a flurry of diplomacy that additionally noticed the U.S. secretaries of the State, Commerce, and Treasury Departments make journeys to China. 

Newsom mentioned China and the US have long-standing partnerships on the problem of local weather change that he wished to construct upon.

Li Yongsheng, deputy commissioner of the Chinese language International Ministry in Hong Kong, mentioned on the opening of the occasion that China-U.S. relations “have proven optimistic indicators of rebounding,” and that he believed Newsom’s go to will probably be productive.

Different attendees included Gregory Could, U.S. consul normal in Hong Kong; Eden Woon, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong; and Elsie Leung, Hong Kong’s former secretary for justice.

However Newsom’s journey to China has drawn issues from some 60 advocacy teams and non-governmental organizations. They expressed their disappointment in a joint assertion Friday characterizing the governor’s journey as a transfer to “explicitly flip away from participating on vital human rights points.”

Requested if the one solution to make progress on local weather issues with China is to not point out human rights points, Newsom denied the tradeoff, saying, “we are able to do many issues directly.”

After his Hong Kong journey, he’ll head to Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu.

He’ll go to the primary Chinese language metropolis to deploy an all-electric bus fleet, tour an offshore wind facility, and see Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory. He’ll signal agreements with leaders of varied Chinese language provinces to set mutual commitments on a bunch of local weather objectives.

Newsom’s agenda additionally consists of conversations on “strengthening cultural ties and combating xenophobia,” and selling financial improvement and tourism.

Governors of California, which has an financial system bigger than most nations, have an extended historical past of local weather collaboration with China. Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger additionally traveled there to swap information on decreasing air air pollution and emissions, and since leaving workplace, Brown has launched the California-China Local weather Institute on the College of California, Berkeley.