California governor's trip shows US-China engagement is still possible on a state level
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. re...
BANGKOK — 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.
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
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